Firefox 87: find on page highlights matches in scrollbar

[harlan4096]

Mozilla plans to introduce a new usability feature in Firefox 87 that improves the web browser's find on page functionality. Currently, when you use find on page, e.g. by invoking it with the shortcut Ctrl-F, you get a few options to customize the search and one visual option to highlight all matches.

Select "highlight all" in the interface at the bottom to highlight all matches on the page. Starting in Firefox 87, visual highlights are shown on the scrollbar as well to indicate the position of matches on the page; this is useful in large documents that may take a lot of scrolling.

The feature is not entirely new, extensions like the abandoned FindBar Tweaks add-on for Firefox, or the still compatible add-on Search Multi Tabs added the feature to Firefox when installed. Native integration on the other hand makes the feature available to all users of the browser. Chromium-based browsers like Google Chrome support similar functionality.

The screenshot below shows how the new scrollbar highlighting looks like in Firefox 87 Nightly.

Not every "hit" is represented on the scrollbar as this could get too convoluted. Instead, the scrollbar highlights area of the document with hits if many are available.

Mozilla plans to include an option to change the color of the highlights. Firefox users who don't want to wait for this to happen can change an advanced parameter of the web browser to modify the color right away.

1. Load about:config in the Firefox address bar.
   
2. Select "accept the risk and continue"
   
3. Search for ui.textHighlightBackground. The preference does not exist by default.
   
4. Select String and then the plus-icon to create it.
   
5. Now use a color code, e.g. blue, firebrick, or PapayaWhip, to change the color of the on-page find highlight function.
   

Changes take effect immediately, a restart of the browser is not required. You can follow development of the feature on Bugzilla@Mozilla.

Firefox 87 is scheduled for a release on March 23, 2021.
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