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I'm using Safari 5.0.3 on Mac OS X v. 10.6.6. When I try to edit a chat post in English.SE to fix a typo, selecting text and hitting the backspace key (for delete) often for some strange reason will send me to the main page of the Stack Overflow site. I find this rather bizarre behavior prevents me from making the edits within the narrow timeframe allowed. Surely this cannot be FAD behavior, can it?

Also, if I forget I'm on the Mac and try holding down the option key and typing 0151 on the number pad (equivalent to Alt-0151 in Windows) to make an em dash, I similarly get dumped to main page of SO. What is triggering this jump to SO?

Edit: This is a virgin install of Safari, with no plugins or addons. Also, the SO main page is not in my history queue when this happens, either.

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  • The backspace problem resembles an old Firefox issue. I've never seen that in Safari though.
    – Arjan
    Feb 19, 2011 at 14:52
  • I am unable to reproduce any of these issues...
    – The Unhandled Exception
    Feb 19, 2011 at 15:28
  • When doing the Option-numpad trick, do you only get redirected after releasing the Option key? Or does, for example, Option-0 already get you redirected? And does it really matter that you're using the numeric keypad? (Note that in Safari Command-1..9 —not Option-1..9— are mapped to the first 9 entries in the bookmarks bar.)
    – Arjan
    Feb 19, 2011 at 16:16
  • @Arjan: Ah, you hit the nail on the proverbial head. Please put this as an answer and I'll accept it so that future fat-fingerers like me will have this on the record.
    – Robusto
    Feb 19, 2011 at 16:29
  • The answer was already there. That is: for the bookmarks part. No clue about that backspace though. (So you might want to wait accepting; it might make people think all is solved.)
    – Arjan
    Feb 19, 2011 at 16:30
  • By the way: if you put another site on Command-1, it might be nice to know if the backspace problem still gets you SO, or that other site. (You can even put topsites: there.)
    – Arjan
    Feb 19, 2011 at 16:34
  • @Arjan: Yes, SO is in my #1 slot on the bookmarks bar. I switched with another site and it goes to that one. I'm pretty sure the problem lies on my end for the other thing as well. I'll just have to try it out. I'm accepting your answer for now and if I can prove that this is a bug and not my own flub I'll post another question with explicit steps to reproduce.
    – Robusto
    Feb 19, 2011 at 16:39
  • @Robusto - if you want an em-dash, try typing ⇧⌥- (shift-option-dash) instead.
    – Dori
    Feb 20, 2011 at 3:36

1 Answer 1

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As for the Option-0151 issue: maybe Stack Overflow is mapped to Command-1?

On the left side of a Windows keyboard, the key order is Control-Windows-Alt. But on a Mac, it is Control-Option-Command.

Forgetting that you're on a Mac, maybe you're actually pressing Command-0151, not Option-0151? In that case you're triggering a bookmark from the bookmarks bar: Command-1 thru 9 are mapped to the first 9 entries in that list. This is not specific to a numeric keypad only.

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  • Yes, I can reproduce this now 100% of the time. It was because of using Command while thinking I was using Alt. Makes perfect sense.
    – Robusto
    Feb 19, 2011 at 16:33

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