Firefox & SeaMonkey Backspace Action

2008.03.15

Sooner or later you will hit the Backspace key by accident! If you running Mozilla's Firefox or SeaMonkey - the new Mozilla Suite - this causes the browser to go back one step in history. Often, while filling an online form or writing an email, I hit Backspace to make a correction and ...wham... I lose everything that I typed in! Going forward in history does not always fix the problem due to they way forms are handled.

Fear not! There is a simple solution. The secret is the about:config URL. Just type it in the URL bar. If you are not in immediately, you'll get a warning saying that it is dangerous... Just accept and you'll be in for real. Then, in the entry field next to Filter, type backspace. This will filter out all the settings that have nothing to do with Backspace. In my setup, which is SeaMonkey 1.1.8, there is only one setting which remains: browser.backspace_action. Double click on the value at the end of that row (it should say 0) and enter the value 1 when the dialog box appears. Click OK and you're done: The backspace key no longer steps back in the browser history.

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