Additional pages don't put focus in omnibox

[LorenAmelang]

The HumbleNewTabPage works perfectly for me except for one thing. When I start Chrome, the first instance appears with the input focus in Chrome's omnibox, so I can just start typing. But when I open an additional page with Ctrl+T or the little button, the omnibox does not get input focus. I'm not sure where it defaults; a single tab focuses the first item in column one. F6 does put the focus in the omnibox, but by the time I remember to press it I've usually already typed my whole query into the void.

I see the "custom CSS" box, but I don't know any way to set focus with CSS. And I don't know how to hack jscript into a Chrome Extension.

Could you maybe force the focus to the omnibox on every new page?

[ibillingsley]

Can I ask what version of Chrome you are using and on what operating system?

I'm not sure why it isn't working for you, but for me the omnibox is focused every time. I don't believe this is something that extensions / javascript have any control over either. The default behaviour for any extension that replaces the new tab page is supposed to focus the omnibox.
https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/override.html#tips

Can you try another extension like Simple New Tab and see if it has the same issue?

[LorenAmelang]

Isaiah,

Thanks for the quick reply!

My Chrome is Version 24.0.1312.14 beta-m. Says it is up-to-date.

My system is Win7Pro_sp1 32-bit with Tablet extensions, on a Motion Computing J3400.

Back in 2010 I was seeing a problem where the LastPass extension took the focus away from the whole Chrome window, leaving the focus obviously not on the omnibox of any new tab. But then F6 didn't work either, I had to Alt+Tab to get back to Chrome, and that put the focus back in the omnibox. None of that seems relevant here, but I tried disabling LastPass just to be sure.

When I start Chrome, the cursor appears in the omnibox long before your page loads, while the tab title still says "Loading...", and stays there. For several tests, pressing Tab at that point would step through the icons along the address bar, putting a dotted outline around each one in turn, and stop at one invisible location before cycling back to the omnibox. On a second or later NewTab page (with no visible focus), pressing Tab would step down to the first item in column one. I discovered Shift+Tab would step back up along the column and even back to the omnibox.

Somehow since I discovered Shift+Tab, even the first NewTab page at startup tabs down the column instead of across the address bar! I can't get back to the previous behavior, even with several fresh starts of Chrome. But assuming the tab order stays the same, your later NewTab pages must start with the focus on the omnibox, just not visible or functional.

I did just try some other NewTab replacements (iChromoto, X New Tab Page) and none of them put the focus in my omnibox, either. Go back to the default Chrome NTP, and it gets the focus every time! Wish they hadn't screwed it up so badly, it used to be pretty usable.

I suspect this is yet another Chrome bug, and they will either eventually fix it or accidentally fix it... It does look like, at least on a regular HTML page, you can force the focus location, but I guess that only works within your content, not to the omnibox.

Oh well, Thanks for listening,

Loren

| Loren Amelang | loren@pacific.net |

On Sunday, November 25, 2012 at 6:25 PM, Isaiah Billingsley
notifications@github.com wrote:

Can I ask what version of Chrome you are using and on what operating
system?

I'm not sure why it isn't working for you, but for me the omnibox is
focused every time. I don't believe this is something that extensions /
javascript have any control over either. The default behaviour for any
extension that replaces the new tab page is supposed to focus the omnibox.
https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/override.html#tips

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[LorenAmelang]

http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=162766

| Loren Amelang | loren@pacific.net |