[Brad]

People have seen me complain about how bad I think the user interface is for Firefox on Mac OS X. It may be able to squeak by on Windows and Linux where interface elements and behaviors aren't as universally consistent, but on Mac OS X where nearly all apps inherit the same, correct UI behaviors "for free," Firefox stands out like a sore thumb.

I've never taken the effort to compile a list and organize these problems until now and I may well have let some things out. I've tried to separate these "bugs" into general categories. To some of you, few or none of these may matter at all. That's okay and that's your opinion. However, such a large list of inconsistencies can make Firefox feel quite uncomfortable for veteran Mac OS X users. In fact, some of them can be wholesale deal-breakers for users with physical disabilities.

This list was made using the official Firefox 1.0 (and later 1.0.7) version as a reference.

General UI

• Firefox is not localized. Changing your preferred language in System Preferences has absolutely no effect on Firefox.
• The resize button acts like the Windows/Linux maximize button, but it does not even take the whole screen. It leaves 128 empty pixels to the right.
• About box is not in a separate window if a browser window is open.
• Any opened sheet makes the attached window modal, preventing you from opening any other windows or doing anything else.
• The About box and Preferences sheets/windows never appear if the Bookmarks Manager is in front.
• Preferences are not in a separate window if a browser window is open. If no window is open, it becomes modal.
• Preference icons should be at the top like Safari's, iChat's, Mail's, iTunes', [...] preferences.
• Tooltips are not native tooltips. Note the incorrect shadow and lack of transparency.
• Contextual menus are not native. Note the incorrect shadow, incorrect selected pattern, incorrect font, poor font spacing, and lack of transparency.
• Contextual menu items cannot be selected by typing letters.
• Contextual menu items cannot be executed by pressing the space bar.
• There are no window proxies anywhere and command-clicking the window title does nothing. While not a necessity, this is a convenience and Safari, OmniWeb, and even the years-old Internet Explorer all offer these features.
• HTML form widgets look nothing like Mac widgets.
• Dragging of images is not WYSISYG. Instead, Firefox creates a large marquee box with the cursor at its x and y midpoint.
• Changing tabs is not documented in any menus and uses nonstandard, unintuitive keyboard shortcuts (control-tab and shift-control-tab).
• The full screen option does not actually go full screen and windows are still resizable when enabled. Applications can and should hide the menu bar and Dock to utilize the full screen in a kiosk mode. There is no check mark or other indicator in the menu when full screen mode is enabled.
• Option-clicking a disclosure triangle (like in the bookmark manager) does not expand all child elements.
• Page source, page info, manage bookmarks, and many other windows have a toolbar widget that does absolutely nothing.
• Page source windows present a blinking cursor implying editability, but input is not accepted.
• Changes in a user's highlight color and "scroll to here/jump to next page" option are not recognized until Firefox has quit and restarted; these should be live options.
• Mac OS X's "Smooth Scrolling" does not work.
• The whole menu bar rearranges itself depending on the context of the frontmost window (web browser, bookmarks manager, DOM inspector).
• The "Bring All to Front" menu is always disabled and is moot on Mac OS X anyway.
• Some menu items never become disabled but should. New Tab, for example, should be disabled when a browser is not the front window (instead, for example, the downloads window) because it does nothing.
• Command-period does not stop page loads; this is a Mac convention that dates well over a decade.
• Scroll wheel does not work in all areas, namely the preferences window.
• Horizontal trackpad/ball scrolling and shift-scroll wheel navigates backwards and forwards. It should scroll horizontally.
• Middle-click does nothing on links. In other Mac browsers and on other operating systems, middle-click should open a link in a new tab or window.
• The rightmost and leftmost few columns of pixels in all toolbars are discolored.
• Popup menus cannot be navigated by typing the first few letters of an item.
• Command-up/down arrow do nothing on regular web pages. They should scroll to the top and bottom of a page (respectively) like Home and End.

Browser Toolbar

• The customize window should be a sheet. Because it is not, it can easily get "lost" behind other windows.
• If the customize window gets lost behind a window, the toolbar refuses to accept normal input.
• If the customize window gets lost behind a window, the Customize... item in the context menu is disabled.
• Command-drag of items does nothing.
• The Remove Item is missing from the context menu; toolbar icons can only be removed when the customization window is open.
• When dragging items off, they are only removed if dropped into the customization window.
• Dragging of toolbar items is not WYSISYG. Instead, Firefox creates an ill-fitting marquee box with the cursor at its x and y midpoint.
• Display type (Icon & Text, Icon Only, Text Only) is missing from the context menu.
• Use Small Size option is missing from the context menu.
• Command-clicking and Shift-command-clicking the toolbar widget does not function properly. It should cycle forwards and backwards through the display types and sizes. Instead, these act as regular clicks, toggling all toolbars.
• Modifying toolbar item arrangement does not affect all opened windows. Modifying display type and size does not affect all opened windows.
• Clicking the address field or search field should insert the cursor at that location; instead it selects all of its contents.
• Option-return in the address bar opens a new tab. The Mac convention for using the option key is to initiate a file-saving download.

Bookmarks Manager

• The toolbar is not editable.
• The toolbar collapse/expand widget does nothing.
• Dragging column headers gives no visual cue other than making the column header's text white (which should not happen anyway).

Text Entry, Navigation, UI

• System services are not supported at all (ie. spell-checking, Services menu items)
• Double-click and drag does not select whole words at a time.
• Double-click does not select the whole word if it includes any punctuation like an apostrophe or hyphen.
• Option-left/right arrow (and shift-option-left/right arrow) does not consistently skip words. It generally works correctly going left except that it stops at some punctuation like an apostrophe. Going right, though, it stops on every word, space, and punctuation inside words.
• Option-up/down arrow is inconsistent with standard Mac text behaviors. It should jump to the beginning of the line after the previous line break or the end just before the next break. Instead, Firefox mimics page up/down and moves the cursor to a new position.
• Shift option-up/down arrow is buggy and inconsistent. It should expand the current selection to the beginning or end, respectively, of the text until the next line break.
• The cursor sometimes disappears completely from text fields/areas on web pages.
• Drag and drop of text is not WYSIWYG. Instead, Firefox creates a large marquee box with the cursor at its x and y midpoint.

User Accessibility

• Text-to-speech is completely absent.
• Tabbing between text fields does not give a standard glow to indicate selection.
• Firefox appears to completely ignore the Full Keyboard Access option in System Preferences. No elements other than text fields are selectable by the tab key. Buttons and other widgets are neither accessible in web pages nor in the application's overall interface.
• Spoken User Interface is nonexistent except in the main menu bar and window titles. Note that this ability in menus and window titles is a feature of the default menu and window classes; so, Firefox developers have effectively done nothing.

Does anyone else have anything you'd like added to the list? Please, feel free to share them here with me.

I don't at all intend this as a rant against Firefox. I love Firefox... on my PCs. On my Macs, though, it feels like a Jhonka going through puberty. Heck, maybe with organized list like this we can even attract a little attention from the Firefox developers and get some of these buggers fixed!