Delete button != Back button
I’m not sure who decided that the delete button would make a great back button in a web browser but they need to have their keyboard license revoked.
After filling out a lengthy online form today I messed up some text and thinking that the text field had focus I pressed delete since that’s how you delete text. The text field didn’t have focus, the browser went back a screen an everything I had entered was lost to digital oblivion.
After finishing a lengthy list of adjectives for the guy who made this UI choice I decided to take control of my life/browser and now my delete button does what it is supposed to – delete stuff.
Should you feel the same here’s a five step process for preserving your sanity and the innocence of any ears within twenty feet:
- Open a new Firefox window
- Enter about:config into the location bar. Press Enter. The about:config page will open. It’s a huge list of Firefox configuration properties.
- Enter browser.backspace into the filter. This will bring the ‘Browser.backspace_action’ preference into view.
- Contrl-click the ‘Browser.backspace_action’ Value column, and choose Modify from the pop-up menu, then enter a new value of 2.
- Press OK.