Typeaheadfind: Click Firefox links with Dragon, without Mouseless Browsing

As I’ve said, Dragon 10 and Firefox have gotten to the point that you can say a word in a link to click it, but this only works maybe 60% of the time. (That just seemed like the appropriately lukewarm number to describe the programs’ half-assed interaction.) I’m not sure why. Luckily for us, there’s a workaround. Well, 2, if you count Mouseless Browsing. But this workaround is for those who may dislike Mouseless Browsing for whatever reason — this one is built into the browser.

Go to the address bar and enter about:config. Go there. First, highlight accessibility.typeaheadfind. Its value will probably be false. Press Enter to set this value to true. Then, highlight accessibility.typeaheadfind.linksonly. Press Enter to set this to true.

This allows you to dictate any part of a link as long as it’s a pronounceable word. So if you say something and Dragon doesn’t click it, no worries — Firefox will highlight in green what you’ve said, and transfer the keyboard focus to it so that all you have to say is either “go there” or “press Enter.” It’s different from Mouseless Browsing in that depending on the words you use, there might be duplicates, and Firefox will focus on the 1st instance so that you have to say “press Control G” until you get the instance you want (or create a Vocola or KnowBrainer “find again” command if you wish). To open a link in a new tab this way, say “press Control Enter,” and to open it in a new window, say “press Shift Enter.” Between this workaround and Dragon 10’s own spotty ability, I barely notice the seams anymore. (Though if Mozilla ever decided to do some research and actually make Firefox SAPI compliant if that’s possible, I certainly wouldn’t complain!)