Summary
Is it possible for "Find in page" (built-in browser page search) to work in Firefox like it does in Chrome, specifically: can one specify, by clicking on the page, the start point on the page for cycling through the results?
Rephrased
In other words: when I search a page in Firefox with Cmd+f -> fill in term -> [enter], the first result that the browser selects (and scrolls to) should be the first match on the page after the last place I clicked on the page (if I first intentionally clicked in some spot on the page to set such a location).
Clarifications
Acceptable behavior
It is okay for the results to cycle back to the top after exhausting all possible results. I just want the results to be fed to me, starting where I specified (by clicking), if I did so.
Of course it is okay for results to start from the top if I did not specify a starting location.
Purpose
I got quite used to this nice feature in Chrome, and have used it many times, when I know a string appears on the page a lot and I want to find next occurrence on the page after a certain point.
- It is very useful to avoid jumping to the top of the screen--breaking context and flow--when I know I just want the machine to highlight something coming up soon.
- After switching to Firefox for more activities, I miss this feature a lot and wonder if is included somehow. I tried searching the web a lot, but failed to even find one discussion.
- I am not sure if this is a bug and used to work, or would be a feature request, or if there is current a way to achieve the goal.
Close but not quite
I do notice that after initially doing a page search that jumps to very first result on the page, Firefox can then, if the same Find dialog is still open, for subsequent searches, be made to jump to the "first result after a mouse-clicked location", with: click on the page -> Cmd-f to focus the search dialog that still has the same text in it -> [Enter].
- This is inadequate for the question, since this process requires first doing the jump-to-topmost-result scrolling, breaking flow/continuity.
- This does show that "find in page after last point clicked" is at least somewhat implemented in Firefox--it just does not seem to work for the very first result returned for any given "Find in page" action, which is what I am asking for (and which Chrome does).
Temporary workaround
The following at least prevents selecting results starting from the top of the page:
- Copy to clipboard a string that only occurs within the field of view (e.g., some long string in view).
- Cmd+f -> paste -> [Enter]. The long string gets highlighted.
- Click on page to set start position.
- Cmd+f -> input search term (this can be copy/pasted from the page) -> [enter]
This workaround does achieve the goal of highlighting the first occurrence of the sought term after the clicked position, but only at the cost of first performing an initial throwaway search to get "Find on page" working in a mode able to receive start-points. Therefore, this is cumbersome and insufficient to serve as long-term solution.
F7
. Once on, it will show a cursor where you click and then any subsequent searches will start from that location. Still requires an extra step/workaround but closer to your goal.