1

I'd like to make the Findbar in Firefox always visible; ie. I don't want to have to press Ctrl+F or do Main Menu > Edit > Find in This Page. (Sometimes the web page will override the keyboard shortcuts, and I'm using AutoHotkey GUI automation to search for items in my web page.)

This is a question I asked a few years ago, with no perfect answer since apparently Firefox simply doesn't allow it, but with some workaround solution that worked in 2019 but no longer seems to apply to the Firefox v105.

Previously, in 2005, one could make the Findbar always appear with this in the userChrome.css file:

#FindToolbar {
    display: -moz-box !important;
}

I found this at http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=243750&highlight=

Later, in October 2019, @BoffinBrain let me know that the element I was looking for was now called "findbar", and I could put this:

findbar {
  display: -moz-box !important;
  visibility: visible !important;
  margin-bottom: 0 !important;
  opacity: 1 !important;
}

This is from my question at How to make Firefox Findbar automatically appear and permanent? (BoffinBrain also put how to remove the close button of the Findbar, but I didn't need that since I would simply remember not to voluntarily close the Findbar.)

This solution no longer works in my current Firefox v105, as the Findbar behaviour has reverted to disappearing after a few seconds.

I am hoping someone can tell me that the "findbar" is now called something else, and I can just make a tweak to the code above and make the findbar persistent, but I will happily take any solution that keeps the Findbar on the screen.

Yes, I did follow the links in #BoffinBrain's reply, turned on the Browser Chrome and Add-On Debugging Toolboxes, and tried to inspect the web page that was actually the browser interface itself, but I could not find the Findbar (it was as if the Findbar didn't exist, even though I could see elements for the rest of the interface).

As an aside comment, I do find it disturbing that, whereas it used to be easy to do a Google search for solutions to software configuration problems, now it's hard to tell when a result is out of date, especially with Firefox things that apply to older versions but not newer ones.

mashuptwice
  • 3,395
kwantum
  • 31

3 Answers3

1

It's not the normal findbar element you need to override the css of, but the findbar[hidden] element.

You can use this in your userChrome.css:

findbar[hidden] {
    display: -moz-box !important;
    visibility: visible !important;
    margin-bottom: 0 !important;
    opacity: 1 !important;
    transition-delay: 0s, 0s, 150ms !important;
}

Note: This will allow the findbar to stay open once opened, but will not automatically trigger it to open.

If you do want to automatically trigger it to open, that would probably require some additional scripting (possibly with userChrome.js)

MC10
  • 10,620
0

The findbar is no longer part of the Firefox window, so cannot be customized by CSS. It's now built-into the Firefox GUI. I have also not found any add-on that can affect the findbar.

You may perhaps try to create a macro that will automatically send Ctrl+F when Firefox is started, by using a utility such as AutoHotKey, but this will only apply to the current tab.

That's about the maximum that I can think of.

harrymc
  • 498,455
-1

Thanks for trying MC10. I added this to my userChrome.css on FF 109 and have userprof set to true in about:config yet while the findfbar will remain open on a page once you opened on that page, FF does that anyway, versus the findbar remaining/persisting open on all tabs and with the same search string visible to search for (the old Findbar ext. for legacy FF enabled that).

I regularly search tabs (and using multiple tab rows I have many) for a certain text, such as in doing research, and having to do F3 or ctrl+f for each one adds time and reduces efficiency.

Note that the backslash / will open the QuickFind bar but does not consistently work
Perhaps what is needed is someway to trigger F3 on every tab load.

PeaceByJesus
  • 232