caret navigation (getting a text cursor) in Google Chrome?

Question

I use Google Chrome on OSX. Is there a way, within the browser, to get a text cursor that will allow me to navigate through text, selecting and copying text using only the keyboard?

I've looked at Vimium, Conkeror, and Vimperator, but as far as I can tell, they allow you to use the keyboard to navigate web pages (scrolling, visiting links) but don't provide a text cursor.

Is this possible?

Update: I have learned that this is called caret browsing or caret navigation. Is this possible in Chrome?

score 21 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 15 '20 at 18:09

21

Recently Google Chrome introduced built-in functionality to browser with caret, just press F7 or go to Settings > Advanced > Accessibility and then turn on "Navigate pages with a text cursor" switch.

answered Oct 15 '20 at 18:09

Prolog

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Oh my god, I thought I was crazy and this text cursor thing had always been there, but now I'm realizing my 3 year old turned it on last week while button mashing on my keyboard! – Kyle Hale Feb 03 '21 at 22:00

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 09 '13 at 22:55

10

Press Ctrl + Shift + J to open the console.
Enter the following into the console and press Enter:
```
document.body.contentEditable=true
```

Now you get a cursor and can even edit the whole page.

answered Mar 09 '13 at 22:55

Oliver Salzburg

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Whilst this is useful (+1), it is very different to caret browsing. The content is literally editable and is no longer navigable (anchors are not active, etc.). – MrWhite Mar 09 '13 at 23:35
@w3d: Humm, you're right. Let me see if I can offer something better :D – Oliver Salzburg Mar 09 '13 at 23:36
@w3d: Seems like most people online only offer text selection as a replacement for caret browsing, I doubt that's what you want either. The best I could offer would be to turn content editing off while the mouse cursor is inside the page (move cursor to address bar to show the caret): `$("html").hover(function(){document.body.contentEditable=false;},function(){document.body.contentEditable=true;});` – Oliver Salzburg Mar 09 '13 at 23:43
The only problem with this way is that I also couldn't find a keyboard-only way to select "Console", when opening Ctrl+Shift+J. EDIT: Weird enough, it seems Ctrl+Shift+J sometimes open in Elements tab (and then I can't TAB to Console), and sometimes opens directly on Console (as wished). Thank you for the hint anyway. – Charles Roberto Canato Nov 16 '13 at 19:18

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited May 12 '13 at 13:13

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Vimperator has caret browsing. The default keybind for it is C.

edited May 12 '13 at 13:13

Oliver Salzburg

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answered May 12 '13 at 11:29

Raphael

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And how does that apply to enabling caret browsing in Chrome? – Oliver Salzburg May 12 '13 at 11:31
>I've looked at Vimium, Conkeror, and Vimperator, but as far as I can tell, they [...] don't provide a text cursor. Vimperator does provide a text cursor. – Raphael May 12 '13 at 11:35
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Fair enough. I'm a bit confused how he got it to work in Chrome though. – Oliver Salzburg May 12 '13 at 13:14

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 16 '13 at 14:30

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So far, it is not yet implemented or planned:source. You can star this feature request and remain updated.

edited Dec 16 '13 at 14:30

Ashildr

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answered Dec 16 '13 at 13:12

Thieme Hennis

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Jeff T. · Answer 5 · 2018-11-30T04:05:33.633

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The chrome extension, Caret Browsing supports mode switching between the caret and the normal browsing.

I think many people'd like the caret navigation back/forward as well, but it hasn't supplied the feature yet.

edited Nov 30 '18 at 04:05

answered Nov 30 '18 at 03:49

Jeff T.

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Some guy down voted, kidding ? – Jeff T. Nov 30 '18 at 08:03

caret navigation (getting a text cursor) in Google Chrome?

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