HOWTO: Change Keyboard Shortcuts in Iceweasel / Firefox

fields · 03-07-2009, 07:49 PM

Hi all! This is my first post, hope it is useful.

How to: Change Keyboard Shortcuts in Iceweasel

Problem:
I just switched over to Debian from Windows XP, and was annoyed I can't "Ctrl-Shift-B" to go to "Edit Bookmarks" in Iceweasel.

I looked it up, found that there is a Firefox addon that does this for you - (Addon: Keyboard Config)

However, it doesn't work for Iceweasel!

So - (And BTW, I'm no expert, I just stumbled my way though this by trial and error, so additions/comments/improvements are welcomed!)

Howto:
1) Open up nautilus browser as Root. (In terminal, type:

Code:

gksudo nautilus

2) Navigate to "/usr/share/iceweasel/chrome"
3) Open up "browser.jar". (You may need to download Archive manager if you don't have it already)
4) Navigate to "/content/browser/" and open up "browser.xul" with text editor (by right-click > "open with" type in Application: "gedit")
5) Scroll down (or search) till you find section: Main Keyset. (<keyset id="mainKeyset">)
6) Look down towards the bottom of this section and find "addBookmarkAsKb", etc. (Doesn't really matter where you do this, I just put the code here for consistency. )
7) Right beneath that, enter this code:

Code:

    <key id="manBookmarksKb"  command="Browser:ShowAllBookmarks" key="B" modifiers="accel,shift"/>

8.) Save the file, exit. It should ask you if you want to recompile the Jar. Click yes.
9) Open up Iceweasel. (If you already had a copy open, close it first). Hit "Ctrl+Shift+B" and test it out! It should pop open the organize bookmarks menu!

Author's Comments:
So, this is probably not as exciting to everyone else as it is me, but I was pretty stoked to actually edit the code successfully. This is probably NOT THE PROPER METHOD. However, it works.
Now, if someone else with a little more knowledge can come along and show us how to change the rest of the keys, or perhaps show a better method, that'd be super.

Author's Requests:
... If not - Does anyone know how to make a script that will do this automatically? And furthermore, do you know how to create a script that will allow for editing all the keys? Furthermore - could this be packaged into a firefox addon?

Thanks!
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e.m.fields