If I click in the URL Bar and type in a page and then hit enter, the focus is taken from the URL bar and placed on the page. This means that if I hit backspace to delete something from the URL bar (say an extra l on the end of an .html) I go back in my history instead of deleting the l. In Nav4.x and i think versions before that, the action was to keep the URL bar in focus until the user either tabbed or clicked out of it. Having the focus suddenly change to the page display seems a little scary in that you have to keep clicking to make a change since there is no way to tab back into the URL bar. Steps to Reproduce: type www.mozilla.org/status/ in the url bar. Hit enter The focus is shifted to the page and if you now hit backspace you are taken to the last page you visited instead of editing the URL bar like in Nav4.x

confirming... however, i actually prefer that focus is the content area, not the url location field (one of the features of surfing w/4.x that i disliked). just my $0.02, tho'. ;)

oh, btw, see bug 55225 to contrast (oddly enough).

this looks like a question of whether what 4x did was right. This seems to have once been "focus stay in bar" and was fixed on 9/22 or so to become "focus goes to page" I think that the way 4x worked was definately good if you made a typo, or came to a 404 error etc. Maybe, this bug should be URL bar should retain focus if no page loaded or the like.

4.x on Linux gave the focus to the page once a URL was entered. I prefer that behavior, although only slightly.

we will not change this behaviour unless there is a compelling UE argument to do so. german?

I suggest that the address field should retain focus if the user reapplies focus to it (e.g. by clicking in it, or quickly tabbing out of it and back into it), OR if she edits its contents, between the time Enter/Go is pressed and the time the page begins appearing in the content area. Otherwise, focus should go to the content area as soon as the page begins appearing. That way, users could still correct typos in the address without being disturbed by a focus change, as long as they began their correction before the (incorrect) page started to appear.

I think that the URL bar should retain focus as long as: 1) The current page has not yet started loading 2) The user recieves a ("XXXXXX" could not be found. Please try again) 3) The user begins editing the bar during the period after they click "go"/enter and before the new page starts to load. These pieces may be fairly seperate, but all should be a part of URL bar focus. If the user hits enter, and the page has not yet starting loading, her "backspace" -- or any other command -- should not apply to the page until a/(the new) page is loaded. This would really confuse people the way it is now, because it would seem like the browser just started doing "strange things." When the user recieves a message that tells them to "Check the address an try again." The place where they should "try again" should really have focus. If a user clicks in the URL bar before the page begins loading (when the focus is removed) or continues to type... (i.e. hits enter then types ".html") that typing should be applied to the URL bar, and in the event that the page begins loading during that typing, the user should NOT have his focus taken from him simply because a page loads. I hope this helps clarify what I think should happen. The different ways both 4x and Mozilla use to control focus in the URL bar are both flawed. People activly using the bar shouldn't have their focus taken away, and people should have focus while nothing else is hapening. (i.e. when the page hasn't yet started downloading.) Thanks.

another thought: if this *does* get implemented as the default behavior, i'd very much want a pref [hidden is fine] that'd allow me to turn it off.

I wholeheartedly support the recent proposals by mpt and Mike Young. It seems very obvious to me that I would want focus in the url bar after i finish typing. I use mac and windows and I'm always forgetting/adding the damn 'L' in .html. Of course, once my page _begins_ to render it should then get focus, no real need before that point.

Neat suggestions!

Addition to Mike Young's point #2. Not only for 404's, but any error should retain focus in the URL bar. This includes non HTTP errors (TCP timeout, no DNS). Bug 28586 is for these to become pages rather then dialogs. It might be simpler to fix that one then to try and coordinate focus THROUGH dialogs, which is what are dependancy (bug 90919.) proposes, plus it's the more permanant fix. Note that even though I'm for this limited bit of keep-focus-in-URL-bar, I'm very much annoyed when Mozilla sometimes seems to keep focus elsewhere when a page loads. Seperate bugs need to be filed for things like pgup/down in the URL bar, clicking the throber, and peronal toolbar. Where is focus going after you tab out of the URL bar? I don't see it anywhere, and space/enter/arrows do nothing. It goes SOMEWHERE before it gets to the page.

See also bug 15050, page load shouldn't overwrite text typed into the url bar.

No. The 4.x behaviour sucked and was horribly unusable. Hit Ctrl+L to refocus the urlbar.

Should we change the Summary of this bug and reopen to address the actions MPT and I mentioned on 1-11-2001, or open a new bug? I for one have learned to live with mozilla placing focus in the page, but I do still think that focus should be given to the page ONLY if there is no error, and not if the user has started reentering/replacing data in the URL bar. Take focus away when I hit enter, but If I want it back, don't take it away again when the page loads.

I filed bug 132090 based on my comment 6 in this bug, which I'm verifying wontfix.