Last Updated on May 3, 2021 by Mathew Diekhake
A feature that has gained some hype over the last few years is the ability to find out where certain words are on a webpage. Google Chrome hasn’t added this feature, but you can install extensions developed by third-parties that do offer a solution. In Firefox it’s a bit different, and there is a feature built in to the web browser called “Quick Find” that allows you to quickly find any words on the webpage that you’re searching for.
Not only is Quick Find built in to Firefox, but it’s also got a great design where a search box pops up at the bottom of the browser window that allows you to enter the words that you’re searching for. This beats any Chrome extensions that require you to first click on the extension from the toolbar and then enter the words that you want to find. The notion of having to click means that the extensions close sometimes when you don’t want it to. You don’t get that problem with Firefox.
As good as Quick Find is for people wanting to hone in on words, some people were complaining about it being accidentally activated and then being unable to remove it from the browser window. Starting from Firefox 63.0, Mozilla has tackled this issue by allowing Quick Find to be disabled.
Disabling Quick Find means that anyone using your computer won’t have to worry about accidentally bringing it up by accident and then it being stuck on the screen until the user figures out a way to remove it.
The following tutorial demonstrates how to enable and disable the Quick Find feature when you’re using the Firefox web browser.
How to Enable or Disable Quick Find in Firefox
1. Open the Firefox web browser application.
2. In the address bar, type about:config and then press the “Enter” key on your keyboard.
3. If you see a warning from Firefox suggesting that what you’re about to do might void the warranty, click on the “I accept the risk” button.
4. In the search box that appears just beneath the address bar, type the following:
accessibility.typeaheadfind.manual
5. Double-click on the accessibility.typeaheadfind.manual setting to change its value from false to true.
You can double-click on it again in future if you ever want to disable the same value again in the future.
That’s all.