Member Avatar for HumanBean20

Though I'm not a newbie, this really is a newbie question - forgive my humble lack of knowledge of what I should know!

I am away from home at the moment using a laptop with XP SP1. (56k connexion). On my home PC, when I need to fill in text boxes online, I can double-click the box and see what I've typed before, often on all sorts of unrelated sites, so I can just click the text I need and get on. This works in IE6, but not other browsers.

It's not happening on this laptop, in any browser. Why? Cookies? I can't work it out (whilst blushing invisibly behind my little keyboard!), so I'm asking...

Thanks in advance,

HB20.

  • 2 Contributors
  • 5 Replies
  • 121 Views
  • 2 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

Dani AI

Generated

— what you describe is browser "form history" (aka autocomplete), not cookies. was right that browsers can be set to save or forget those typed entries, so a machine-by-machine difference is normal. Cookies are unrelated: form-fill data is kept locally by the browser and controlled by privacy/history settings.

For Netscape 7 and Firefox look for the browser's form/search history option in the Privacy/History preferences and enable it. In Firefox you can also check the internal preference browser.formfill.enable on the about:config page — it must be true for form-fill to work. Make sure you are not running in a private/no‑history mode and that no cleaning tool (or a setting) is wiping form data at exit.

Quick troubleshooting steps:

  • Type a distinctive word into a text field, leave the page, then return and type the first letters (or press the down-arrow) to see if suggestions appear. Double-clicking to show history is an IE quirk; Firefox/Netscape usually show entries as you type or via the down arrow.
  • If nothing appears, try a new browser profile to rule out a corrupted profile or bad prefs.
  • Check for utilities (privacy cleaners, antivirus cleanup) that clear form data automatically.
  • If needed, install a form-history manager add-on for Firefox to view/manage stored entries.

Caution: enabling form history saves what you type (not saved passwords) — avoid enabling it on public/shared machines. If the laptop still refuses to remember anything, post the exact browser versions and any cleanup/security tools being used so the community can give exact steps.

Recommended Answers

All 5 Replies

Member Avatar for caperjack

in IE go to tools/internet options /content/auto complete,and check off the ones you want to auto complete .

Member Avatar for HumanBean20

Great, caperjack - thanks! Now, how do we do it in the other browsers, notably Netscape? All tips welcome, and I'll have a look myself too... ;)

Member Avatar for caperjack

haven't use netscape in years sorry !
I use firefox but can't find it anywhere ,there is tools /options and i look around but dont see it . .

Member Avatar for HumanBean20

Hi, caperjack,

Netscape 7 is quite cool, but in any case if you can't find it in Firefox, it's probably not there in Netscape either. I've looked too, and in the Help stuff, etc. Thanks anyway for your help.

Bean.

Member Avatar for caperjack

i think in the old netscape there was some thing in File/options or preferences ,maybe

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.