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Want to know whether there is a default hotkey for highlighting a web-page search bar, rather than the address bar. The dictionary http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ , for example.

Thanks to Tetsujin, I have known that using "Tab" can bring one back to the top of a web page. However, it seems under Windows 7 that for one to highlight a given search bar one still has to double click the search bar.

If there is no such default hotkey, will you please tell me how to set up such one using the browser?

Yes
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  • Double-click should select it all, then you can just type straight over that – Tetsujin Sep 14 '14 at 07:24
  • @Comeseeconquer Not a problem. – jonsca Sep 14 '14 at 07:47
  • @Tetsujin: Thanks very much. But did you mean to double click the search bar? If yes then I am afraid that is not what I am after :) Because oftentimes I have to look up the synonyms given, so I have to scroll to the top of the page so that I can re-type a new word in. But it is this that bothers me; I want to find a hotkey so that I can blacken the search bar without scrolling. – Yes Sep 14 '14 at 08:20
  • Have you tried Tab? – Tetsujin Sep 14 '14 at 08:31
  • @Tetsujin: Thank you, I have never known "Tab" can return screen to the top. :) But it seems that I still have to double click the search bar? So is there a hotkey to replace "double click"? Much appreciated. – Yes Sep 14 '14 at 08:34
  • It might depend on the OS - I'm on Mac/Safari & Tabbing back to the search automatically highlights the previous text so I can immediately overwrite – Tetsujin Sep 14 '14 at 08:36
  • Ah, mine is Windows 7. And thank you that I know how to describe the action "blacken"; it turns out that the action is called "highlight"! – Yes Sep 14 '14 at 08:37
  • Ctrl + K Ctrl + E – crazypotato Sep 14 '14 at 13:43
  • @crazypotato: Hey thanks so much. I had tried those two combinations; it turned out that they both give the "?" in the address bar :). – Yes Sep 14 '14 at 14:06
  • You should specify browser and i missed web part. – crazypotato Sep 14 '14 at 14:54
  • in many cases you can just [press `/` to jump to the search box](https://superuser.com/a/1471621/241386) – phuclv Aug 13 '21 at 14:55

3 Answers3

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By default, it's not possible.

But Google Chrome has an extension specifically for that. It's called Search Box Focus. You can find it here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/search-box-focus/amgmdnojamodmpfjaokfgpijhpcednjm

Once installed, you can simply press Tab to focus the search bar. I hope that helps!

Falaen
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The solution is: extensions. Search for "Search box focus extension", they work for Google (Tab) and Mozilla (Ctrl+Y) (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/focus-site-search-bar/).

user1711348
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"highlighting a web-page search bar"

No hotkey for this unless site set this hotkey. How you think browser will know which element search bar on site? But you can make userscript for each site for this feature, but its require javascript knowledge.

In your example url search bar have code:

<input ondblclick="click_block=1" onclick="SAYT.Suggest(this,event)" onkeyup="saveCaret(this);SAYT.Suggest(this,event)" onmouseup="saveCaret(this)" onfocus="this.select()" name="Word" id="f1Word" value="" size="40" autocomplete="off" accesskey="s">

What important its accesskey="s". So for select this search bar need press Alt + s

Note: The shortcut is varying in different browsers:

IE, Chrome, Safari, Opera 15+: [ALT] + accesskey
Opera prior version 15: [SHIFT] [ESC] + accesskey
Firefox: [ALT] [SHIFT] + accesskey
crazypotato
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  • Ah, thank you so much. Unfortunately there is no universal hotkey; slightly inconvenient :) Thank you again for your attention and time. – Yes Sep 14 '14 at 15:03