OmniWeb Help

Forms in OmniWeb

When you encounter a form on a web page when using OmniWeb there are a few things that can make it easier for you to complete. Using AutoFill, various fields in the form can be automatically populated using information from the Mac OS X Address Book. Additional information for AutoFill to use when filling out forms can be provided using AutoFill Preferences.

To AutoFill forms on web pages you can use the AutoFill Form ⌥⌘A item in the View menu, the toolbar item, or the AutoFill icon that appears on the status bar ( ).

Autocomplete can also assist you when filling out forms by offering completions for various terms as you type them into form fields. To select an item that OmniWeb has suggested, use the arrow keys to highlight it in the list and then use the spacebar to enter it into the form. For more information see Autocomplete Preferences.

Navigating Forms Using the Keyboard

In OmniWeb 5.1, you can use the tab key to select form controls. First, though, you must turn on full keyboard access in Mac OS X System Preferences (see Mac Help for exactly how to do this). Pressing space with any control other than a text field selected is the equivalent of clicking on that control. There is a control in General Preferences for setting whether tab also moves between links on the page.

To insert a tab character into a web form, press control-tab.

When a popup list is open, you can use the keyboard to type the first part of the item you would like to choose to have it automatically highlighted in the list. You can then select the item using the spacebar. For example, with a popup menu of all the states in the USA open, I could type "WA" to automatically highlight that state and then press the spacebar to make the selection and close the menu.

Zoomed Text Editor

The Zoomed Text Editor allows you to open a stand-alone window within OmniWeb to edit text areas in web page forms. The window allows for much easier editing of large amounts of text since in many cases the size of the control provided by the web page is smaller than you'd like. The window features toolbar buttons for importing text files and printing the contents of the window.

Top open the zoomed editor, click the [+] button that appears at the top of the scroller area. When you're finished with the editor, simply close it using the normal close button located on the title bar. While the zoomed editor is open you can not edit the original text area on the page itself until you close the separate editor window.

You can set your preferred font for the editor by using the standard items under the Edit menu.