Text Input Box Tabbing Order

Often more than one Text Input box is displayed on a page at the same time, for example, if you are creating an online questionnaire or gathering user details. There are options available in each Text Input box that allow you to:

1. Set the Auto Focus of an object – this means you can select which Text Input object has the focus when the user enters the page. To ‘have the focus’ simply means the I-beam cursor will begin flashing in the Text Input box that has its Auto Focus option set – users can immediately begin typing in the box.

2. Skip between input boxes – this means you can move between one Text Input box and another on a page using either the Enter key or the Tab key (if these options are set in the Text Input tab of the objects Properties dialog box).

In the Illustration below, the Objects tab of the Page Organiser shows some of the objects on the Email page. The First Name input object is higher up the hierarchy than the Surname Input and Email input objects. If the Tab skips to next text box option is selected in all three Text Input objects, then whenever the user presses the Tab key, the focus will skip to the next input box. In other words, the order in which Text Input objects are skipped is the same order as they appear in the Page Organiser hierarchy:

Related Topics:

Using the Text Input tool

the Text Input tab