Take the 2-minute tour ×

As someone somewhat active editor in SE, I have the need to edit several post per day. Some of them would be easier if I have the "Replace"/"Typeover" (the action when you press Insert) in Firefox. I've not able to activate this function nor I have figured out if I need an option before hand. So, how do I replace/typeover text in any text area in Firefox?

I'm not going to find and replace stings, but typeover while writing as I can do with a text editor.

share|improve this question

2 Answers 2

up vote 1 down vote accepted

According to Bug 38415 this is a known issue and it's marked as WONTFIX. Firefox is always in insert mode and that's that.

You're probably better off looking into extensions like It's All Text!, for instance. This extensions allows you to edit textareas using an external editor of your choice.

share|improve this answer

If you are looking to replace words with other words, Firefox has several add-ons you could use. I have found the link for the general search:


Hope this helps.

share|improve this answer
Just from reading the reviews it looks like FoxReplace is a safe bet. that's here: addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/foxreplace/reviews –  Anthony Nov 6 '13 at 23:15
No, I want to replace characters as I write. –  Braiam Nov 6 '13 at 23:30
Oh, misunderstood. Sorry. –  Anthony Nov 6 '13 at 23:32

Your Answer


