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Reviews for Keyboard Surfing

Keyboard Surfing by Somnia

4.6 Stars out of 5
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Review by Firefox user 13449888
by Firefox user 13449888, 7 years ago
Impossible to navigate on components of browser, such as tabs and menus. Cursor does not follow the red dot accurately. Why not use cursor insted of plain dot? Usable but can not replace mouse.
Upd. navigate menus, tabs, bookmark panel, addons buttons in the same way (like you do it with your mouse)

Developer response

posted 7 years ago
The reason why standard cursor cannot be used is that Firefox doesn't provide the functionality for addons to move the cursor, at least not the last time I checked. This is most unfortunate, but perhaps it will change in the future. In the mean time, Keyboard Surfing will simulate the cursor with the red dot.
As for the menus, you can navigate them in the usual way, with the alt key.
12 reviews
  • by Firefox user 17996832, 2 years ago
  • by Firefox user 13193784, 6 years ago
    Great! But please make it possible to change the keybindings - I love [Shift+]Space Bar for page up and down but can't use it because space is used as a modifier (same function as Pause)
  • by BathindaHelper, 6 years ago
  • by Firefox user 14376815, 6 years ago
  • by totorigolo, 6 years ago
  • by Firefox user 13923700, 7 years ago
    This is exactly what I was looking for to ditch my mouse. It's intuitive and works great for most sites.
  • by Firefox user 13768144, 7 years ago
    Great addon, thanks !
    Sometimes however the red dot is not very precise... which prevent me from clicking somewhere I want to.

    Also, there is no "Pause" key on Mac keyboard, so i can't toggle the keyboard nav easily :( Is it possible to set it to something else ?

    Developer response

    posted 7 years ago
    Thanks for the review!

    Here is what's making the trouble:
    The Firefox has no API which would allow an addon to get a list of all the active elements on the page. Tho get around this, KS requests a list of all links and then scans them all one by one to determine which ones are visible. The unanticipated problem was and is that this scanning process is very slow. Therefore, KS needs time to determine which elements are active. Furthermore, it does not actually scan all elements, it skips some things in order to increase the scanning speed.

    So, KS will sometimes not be able to detect all links. Also, if a webpage is big and full of links, KS will need time to scan (and re-scan) them all.

    I think I have figured out a way to get around this issue, but it is a big job as I will have to tear apart the entire code for finding links. There are many other issues I found in KS, so this all has to be fixed together, and it will require a month of my time. Unfortunately, I won't have a free month for another year or so.

    Therefore, all improvements for KS are currently on hold.

    I really like this addon, I am using it all the time, but it is not very high on my list of priorities, primarily due to a total lack of active users.

    As for the "Pause" key, I would suggest that you find some hotkey utility for Mac which can emulate the "Pause" key, because on some pages KS will mess up and you will need a way to disable it.

    When I was choosing a hotkey, I was looking at common keys included on PC laptops. Mac didn't cross my mind.
  • by Firefox user 13509203, 7 years ago
    great extension, but I would like to personnalize the shortcuts (for exemple, I want 2 instead of 5 to go down, and space should not be a mod touch).
  • by Firefox user 13444812, 7 years ago
    i was looking for that!
    true mouseless browsing!
  • by David, 7 years ago
    Never been a fan of the mouse or his twisted cousin the touch-pad. They have their place of course, but the business of switching back and forth from keyboard to mouse annoys me. So the more I can do without the mouse(pad) the better (for me).
    This extension works very smoothly and I appreciate the ease with which many things can be done mouselessly, and how the left-hand or right-hand shortcuts can be turned off (in options) and how the [Pause] key (pause/break on my keyboard) can be used to toggle the extension on/off.
  • by Firefox user 12764335, 8 years ago
    Great addon for the people who like to have an experience of mouseless browsing and navigation without mouse. It would be great if it would be possible to change the default shortcuts (not just E,S,D,F, I,J,K,L) or to disable some of them, because sometimes other addons use the same shortcuts for other purposes. Thank you for this great addon.