Disable or Enable Backspace as ‘Go Back’ Page Browsing Function in Firefox

In Firefox in Windows operating system, when pressing the backspace key, the web page active in the window or tab will be going back one page, an action that similar to when the both Firefox and IE browser’s “Back” button, while Shift+Backspace will go forward. The backspace key is mapped to “Back” function in Firefox for Windows is for consistency with Internet Explorer.

On the other hand, Firefox in Linux by default does not map the backspace key to “Go Back” function to improve consistency with other applications running on Linux. Instead, the page will scroll up or down (when pressing Shift+Backspace key together).

The backspace as Back button feature can be easily turned on or off depending on user preference. Thus, Firefox for Windows users can disable the back function mapping to backspace key, and Firefox for Linux can enable the backspace to map to Back function easily, by using the following Firefox pref.

Type about:config in Firefox Location Box, and then confirm the warning message. Then locate the following preference name:

browser.backspace_action

Change the “browser.backspace_action” to one of the following values to reflect your intention on how the Backspace key should behaves:

0: Pressing [Backspace] will go back a page in the session history and [Shift]+[Backspace] will go forward. (Default in Windows)

1: Pressing [Backspace] will scroll up a page in the current document and [Shift]+[Backspace] will scroll down. Except Camino that does not implement any behavior for the value 1, which is unmapped. (Default in Linux builds before 2006-12-07)

Any other integer number: Any other integer value will simply unmap the backspace key. In Linux builds after 2006-12-07, the default is 2.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 at 4:34 am and is filed under Web Browsers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “Disable or Enable Backspace as ‘Go Back’ Page Browsing Function in Firefox”

  1. Menonaktifkan fungsi tombol “backspace” sebagai “go back” pada firefox « Mikha Valerint
    October 31st, 2009 10:20
    9

    [...] (Sumber asli dari sini) [...]

  2. mikejonesey
    August 28th, 2009 07:08
    8

    thankyou!

  3. Michael B
    August 21st, 2009 08:46
    7

    Thanks! I find that every now and then, via some bug, I lose an entire form post that I’m typing because it does the back-browse on backspace!!!

  4. List of about:config Hacks Customization for Firefox » My Digital Life
    July 27th, 2009 01:23
    6

    [...] Disable or enable backspace as ‘Go Back’ page browsing function in Firefox [...]

  5. Brian Shacklett
    July 22nd, 2009 02:22
    5

    This has always driven me crazy. Thank you.

  6. David
    March 1st, 2009 13:38
    4

    Thanks! Now does anyone know how to do the same for Internet Explorer?!

  7. John Quillen
    February 8th, 2009 09:40
    3

    Thank you! I lost 45 minutes worth of typing in a wysiwig javascript editor yesterday because focus on the edit box was lost and I tried to erase a character!

  8. Thaddaeus
    January 29th, 2009 00:47
    2

    Thank you so much! That was driving me INSANE!

  9. things to look at (November 25th - December 2nd) | stimulant - changing things around. . .
    December 2nd, 2008 21:01
    1

    [...] Disable or Enable Backspace as ‘Go Back’ Page Browsing Function in Firefox » My Di… [...]

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