Spider Trax

Stop Firefox Blipping

If you’re using Dragon with Firefox, it is likely that you are being driven mad by the persistent “blipping” sound emanating from the Find box every time you mis-dictate a link or phrase.

Believe it or not, this is considered to be a feature of Firefox’s “Find As You Type” accessibility option. If you try to disable Find As You Type, you will suddenly find that Dragon no longer works within Firefox. So for the time being, you’ll just have to learn to ignore the Find box as it pops up and down but you can mute it.

First of all, you will need to locate your user.js file. If you’re using Firefox under Windows, try looking in:

C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\

Or

C:\WINDOWS\Profiles\profile_NAME Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\

Once you have located the user.js file, open it up for editing within a text editor. Don’t use a word processor such as Word! Use something like Notepad. Add the following lines to the bottom of the file:

// Turn error sound off in Find As You Type.
// It is currently off by default for Linux/Unix but
// on by default for other platforms)
user_pref("accessibility.typeaheadfind.enablesound", false);

Save and then restart Firefox. You should no longer be bothered by annoying blips and beeps.

Whilst you’re editing the user.js file, fancy forcing the Find box to disappear faster?
Add the following to user.js:

// This is the time in milliseconds for the Find As You Type
// to stop watching for keystrokes:
user_pref("accessibility.typeaheadfind.timeout", 1000);

You may find that this timeout is a little too fast – in which case, try increasing it to between 2000 and 3000.

Next item on the list: Try and find a way of forcing the Find box to remain visible as a less distracting alternative to the constant popping up and down.