Tab Order Designer
In the Windows operating system's, when you press
the <Tab> key while a window that has multiple
controls on it is active, the focus moves through the
controls according to each control's position in the
tab order.
In the Visual Basic designers you can rearrange
the controls in the tab order by using the
TabIndex property available on any control that
supports focusing. You can even prevent a control from
receiving focus when the <Tab> key is pressed by
setting the its TabStop property to 'False'.
However, setting these properties by hand (especially
for forms hosting a great number of controls) can be a
tedious and time consuming task.
The CodeSMART Tab Order Designer tool automates this
task and gives you the possibility to set the tab order
and the TabStop property for all the controls on
a designer by using an easy-to-use dialog. This
dialog displays all the controls contained by the
active designer in a list sorted by their current
tab position. You can directly modify the tab order
by simply moving list items up or down (drag-and-drop
them or use the corresponding command buttons). You can
also specify each control's TabStop property value by
using the list control's checkboxes.
To change the tab order:
-
Open a form/designer in Design view.
-
On the Designer Tools toolbar, click Tab Order Designer or select
the same entry in the CodeSMART main menu in order to display the Tab Order
Designer dialog (quick toolbar
and menu references
are available).
The Tab Order Designer dialog lists all the
controls on the designer in their current tab order.
-
You may start tab ordering by clicking the AutoOrder button to automatically set the tab order in a left-to-right and top-to-bottom manner.
-
You can go on and refine with manual configuration, by using either the Move Up and Move Down buttons or Ctrl+UpArrow and Ctrl+DownArrow key combinations, in order to reposition controls in the list.
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Uncheck the TabStop check box for the controls you don't want to receive focus when the user presses the <Tab> key.
-
Click Apply to make the changes effective.
Notes
-
You can filter the list to only display controls that have the TabStop property set to "True".
-
If you want to use labels with mnemonics in order to move the focus to a specific
control check the Show frame and label controls checkbox. Because labels can't
be focused, focus automatically moves to the next control in the tab
order. If needed you can use the subsequent link control in order to define an extended list of label and frame like controls.
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When the Show potentially out-of-order visually hints option is checked, CodeSMART will emphasize controls that (apparently) are not in a correct tab order. The decision is made in a left-to-right, top-to-bottom manner.
-
The currently selected control in the list is automatically selected in the designer window.
See Also
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