On my work laptop, it seems like the whole browser window is active, so when I use the cursor keys the whole window scrolls.

On my home desktop, it seems like something inside the window itself is active, so when I use the cursor keys a text cursor in that window moves. If there is a lot of text in paragraph form it will scroll line by line, but if it is like a forum page, the cursor (and hence the scrolling) is all over the map depending on what text it is on, either the poster information or the text posted.

Is there any way to get the home machine behavior to mimic that of the laptop? I haven't had any success trying to figure it out yet.

What browser are you using? The behavior (at home) sounds positively odd.

Home is Firefox 3.6.8 on Win7.

Internet Explorer works how you would expect it to, so it might just be a 'reinstall and forget it ever happened' thing.

I don't know what's going on with your Firefox, but there should never be a text cursor on a non-form part of a web page. Not even when selecting text. Try re-installing it and/or updating to a new version/nightly.

So Firefox is the problem child? Try pressing F7.

That fixed it, how bizarre. Now I just have to remember that next time it happens (probably the next time my cat decides I'm spending too much time ignoring him).

Thanks for the help guys!

What does that key do in Firefox?

Apparently that's the caret browsing mode in Firefox. It looks like it's a toggle that persists through browsing sessions, so yeah, barring cat typing, it shouldn't come back

Just searched the explanation... It's an accessibility mode that allows text selection and navigation of the content of the page using the keyboard.

Recently I had to search for why a text cursor appeared on webpages in Firefox for me. I found the info about [F7] and was able to turn it off.

Occasionally in a text entry field the cursor will disappear entirely. When this happens I toggle F7 a couple times and it comes back for a while.