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Avoiding browser actions

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Aug 03.2008

Hello,

I’m trying to write an editor in javascript.
I’m having a problem with a few keys:
– Backspace (goes back to previous page).
– Tab (moves focus).
– ‘ (opens the search bar in firefox).
– Arrows (move the window’s contents).

How can I block these keys from being processed by the browser as a shortcut to something.

Thank you.

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JavaScript

3 Comments(s) ↴

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@KorAug 04.2008 — By short: You [I]should not[/I] block them. Users expect their browsers to behavior as they were build for. You should rather define your own shortcuts, which must not interfere with the browsers' native shortcuts.
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@slaughtersAug 04.2008 — Use the textarea input field:

A backspace inside a textarea field does not go to the previous page.

' does not open a search bar when typed in a textarea

Arrows do not move the windows contents in a textarea
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@vesper8Aug 04.2008 — it's true you shouldn't block them, but if you wanted to you could. I have a website which does exactly that. You just need to listen for the keyboard input and add your own custom code when a specific key is pressed followed by a 'return false' which basically tells the browser not to do the default action for that button. I've been able to override most of buttons including F1, F2, F8, backspace, del etc. I haven't tried to do anything with tab. It was a pain to get it to work cross browser as you need to use different code for firefox and IE but in the end it works great. Albeit surely many developers would scold me for doing this ;p It is doable.
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