Pearl Crescent
Keyword Box
Documentation
More About Keyword Box

NOTE:  This add-on is a XUL/XPCOM extension and therefore it is not compatible with recent versions of Firefox.

Keyword Box Documentation
Configuring Keyword Box for the First Time
Keyword Box Click to Configure
Figure 1 — The Keyword Box Before Configuration
After you install Keyword Box and restart Firefox, a new text input box will appear on the Firefox navigation toolbar (it will added be to the left of the search item if it is present or to the end of the toolbar).  This text input box is called the keyword box.  Initially it will contain the phrase “Click to configure” (as shown in Figure 1).

To configure Keyword Box, click anywhere in the keyword box to open the options window and then choose one of the sample scripts from the Load a sample script... menu.  You may also enter your own script or keyword URL using the options window.  See the section Customizing Keyword Box for more information.

Using Keyword Box
To use Keyword Box, simply click in the text input box, type a word or phrase, and press the Enter key.  The text you entered will be passed to the active script or URL; what happens next depends on how the extension is configured.

For example, if Keyword Box is configured to use the “Map” sample script then a Google Maps page will be displayed based on the word or phrase you entered in the keyword box.  For example, enter “San Francisco” to view a map of the City by the Bay.

To view helpful text, hold the mouse pointer over the keyword box until a tooltip is displayed.

Customizing Keyword Box
You may customize Keyword Box's behavior by adjusting options.  Use one of the following two methods to open the Keyword Box options window:
  • Choose Keyword Box Options... from the context menu associated with the Keyword Box toolbar item.
  • Open the Firefox Add-ons window and double-click on Keyword Box.
Figure 2 shows the options window with the Map sample script loaded.
The Keyword Box Options Window
Figure 2 — The Keyword Box Options Window

When entering a location (URL) or JavaScript code, use %s where the text entered in the keyword box should be placed.  For example, the Weather sample script uses the location http://www.weather.com/weather/local/%s, so entering "10001" into the keyword box will load the Weather Channel's forecast for New York City.

In addition to configuring a script, you can adjust the size of the keyword box and choose whether its contents are cleared after the Enter key is pressed.

Known Issues and Limitations
  • After you use Firefox's Customize Toolbar feature, the context menu associated with the keyword box is not available until you create a new browser window.  Also, the gray descriptive text disappears until the next time you use the keyword box.  To avoid these problems, restart Firefox after using the Customize Toolbar feature.
Additional Assistance
If you need more help or have a suggestion for us, please send email.  If you create a Keyword Box script that may be useful to other people, please send it to us.
Other Information
Keyword Box Extension GUID:
cb60560d-4cdd-47ED-b4ba-54e403a0a82c

Authors and Translators:
  • Kathleen Brade
  • Mark Smith
  • MartinMeise (de locale)
  • myahoo (fr locale)
  • GgraFiX, Luca90 (it locale)
  • drry (ja-JP locale)
  • Markh (nl locale)
  • pedsann (pt-BR locale)
  • humbertosartini, lloco (pt-PT locale)
  • salnsg (ru-RU locale)
  • Lakrits (sv-SE locale)
  • KenanBalamir (tr locale)
  • Sappa (uk-UA locale)
  • fiag (zh-CN locale)
  • toomore (zh-TW locale)
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