Mozilla Firefox includes an accessibility feature known as “Caret Browsing.” When activated, a flashing text cursor (similar to the one you see in Microsoft Word) appears on the web page, allowing you to navigate through paragraphs, select text, and click links using only the arrow keys on your keyboard instead of a mouse. While incredibly useful for users who rely on keyboard navigation, the feature is usually triggered accidentally by pressing the F7 key. If you suddenly find a blinking cursor stuck on your web pages and want to return to normal scrolling, you can turn Caret Browsing off.
How to Turn Off Caret Browsing
You can disable this feature either via its keyboard shortcut or through the main settings menu.
Method 1: The Keyboard Shortcut
The quickest way to disable Caret Browsing is to simply press the F7 key on your keyboard again. A pop-up box may appear asking you to confirm that you want to turn the feature off.
Method 2: The Settings Menu
If the F7 key is broken or you want to ensure the feature is disabled via the graphical interface:
- Open the Mozilla Firefox browser.
- Click the Application Menu button (the three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner.
- Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
- Ensure you are on the General tab in the left-hand menu.
- Scroll down the page until you find the Browsing section.
- Look for the checkbox labelled Always use the cursor keys to navigate within pages.
- Click this checkbox to uncheck it.
The blinking text cursor will instantly vanish from your web pages, and your arrow keys will return to their default behavior of smoothly scrolling the entire page up and down.