Navigating forms - tab key

My tab key has suddenly changed behavior when filling out web forms. It still works to move from one form element to the next... But when I get to a text field, hitting tab actually inserts a tab instead of moving to the next form element.
If memory serves, this is not how the tab key used to work -- it used to move you from one form element to the next, no exceptions. Anybody know how to get this behavior back?

Hi -
Go to Safari Preferences>Advanced and select "press tab to highlight each item etc.". That ought to restore the tab behavior you are looking for.

Similar Messages

Make Forms "Tab Key" accessible

Hey there,
I just created a whole bunch of meta data sets and it was a little annoying that it is not possible to simply advance to the next (form) field using the tab key (or an arrow key for that matter).
Although that may be a Windows GUI problem, but if not, fixing that would be awesome.
Anurag

Hi -
Go to Safari Preferences>Advanced and select "press tab to highlight each item etc.". That ought to restore the tab behavior you are looking for.

PJC tab-key navigation problem within bean (FORMS intercepting tab key??)

Using Forms 10.1.2.3, IE7, JRE 1.6
When attempting to navigate within the bean area, it appears as if FORMS is suppressing the keyEvent when the tab key is pressed. This means that I cannot use tab or shift-tab to navigate within the PJC's editable fields/buttons. I can click on them, enter data within them, but tab is somehow intercepted. When I place my PJC within a normal (non-forms) Java window, everything works fine.
Documentation that I've read seems to indicate that tab should navigate perfectly fine within the bean area.
Any ideas?

Hi,
This is how I did it. Sorry about the formatting, it was OK when I pasted the code fragment in.
My class contains this in the variable definitions.
private AWTEventListener keyListener = new DoKey ();
private class DoKey implements AWTEventListener {
public void eventDispatched (AWTEvent e) {
//System.err.println("eventDispatched " + e.toString());
//System.err.println("eventDispatched source " + e.getSource().toString());
if ((e instanceof KeyEvent) && (e.getSource() instanceof Component)) {
* The event was a key pressed event and it was sourced from a Component.
KeyEvent evt = (KeyEvent) e;
if (evt.getID() == evt.KEY_PRESSED) {
if (evt.getKeyCode() == evt.VK_TAB) {
if (evt.isShiftDown()) {
((Component)e.getSource()).transferFocusBackward();
else {
((Component)e.getSource()).transferFocus();
The listener is enabled when on initialisation
Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().addAWTEventListener (keyListener, AWTEvent.KEY_EVENT_MASK);
Regards, Tony C

11g Forms Tab-Page Navigation

I am using Forms 11g on Solaris.
A main navigator form opens another form which has a content canvas, tab-page canvas and (3) stacked canvases.
The problem I am having is with tab-page navigation.     CTRL+TAB ( next ) and CTRL+SHIFT+TAB ( previous )
As long as I do not initiate navigation from an item on a stacked canvas, navigation is as expected ( between tab pages only ).
However, navigating from an item within a stacked canvas causes navigation to the parent form.
Repeating the tab navigation keys from the parent form returns to the called form.
Note that both key-combinations simply toggle back and forth.
I have found no documentation on tab-page navigation so any help / insight is greatly appreciated !
Mike

Hi Soofi !
Changing block order in the called form does not affect the navigation between tab pages.
Note in my question that the resulting undesired navigation is to and from the calling form ( which only has one block ).
Navigation between items and blocks works as expected.
To reiterate -
     The only navigation that fails is when I attempt to CTRL+TAB or CTRL+SHIFT+TAB to another tab page from within an item on a stacked canvas.
     Attempting this navigation results in moving the cursor focus to the calling form.
     Repeating the attempt from the calling form moves back to the called form.
     None of your methods mention navigation between forms .
Thanks for your interest.

Problem with tab-key navigation

I am making chanegs to an existing form.
I have a tab canvas with 3 tabs, each contains a data block, and other data blocks outside of the tab canvas.
I wanted the tab key to move the cursor to the next record so I changed the navigation style from "Change Block" to "Change Record", but it did not help. When the cursor is a on a record of a multi-record block and I tab through the items to the last one, pressing the tab key leads me to another tab-page.
I put in some debug code and noticed that the WHEN-TAB-CHANGED trigger did not fire. The WHEN-VALIDATE-RECORD trigger fired and the cursor block and record number were correct.
After the tab key took me to another tab-page and I navigated back to the original tab-page. Even though it looks like I'm on the correct tab page, SYSTEM.cursor_block was NOT correct, it was pointing to another data block outside of the tab canvas.
I checked other forms on our system and I'm pretty sure that changing the navigation style to "Change Record" would work. Perhaps there's something peculiar about this form.
Any idea will be appreciated.
Thanks.

Found the problem.
For some reason, the WHEN-NEXT-ITEM trigger of the last item of the record is hard-coded to go the another block.

IECanvas browser + Tab key navigation

When I embed IE into IECanvas bowser, does it support TAB key navigation?
If not, How to achieve the same?

See
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/forms/formsaccessibility.html
Assign the tabindex attribute on the elements you want according to your desired navigation sequence.

[Bug?] How to use the Tab key in forms

Ahoy!
The latest release of Photoshop has "broken" the native behavior of the Tab key in html panels. I'm not sure if this is a bug or just a new API I need to incorporate.
Expected behavior:
1. Focus into text field in a form
2. Hit the Tab key
3. The next field is focused.
Actual behavior
1. Focus into text field in a form
2. Hit the Tab key
3. Photoshop hides the application UI (Photoshop hotkey tab behavior).
Anyone happen to know if there's something that can be done about this?

Bug is very annoying for our users when they try to input their usernames and passwords to login (often) and also when they're filling out a large form with four fields in it.
Hope it is fixed soon or a work around provided.
Tom Wrenn
Frontend Engineer
CreativeWorx

Regarding Tab key Navigation in a page

Hi,
I have a requirement regarding the tab key navigation on a page.
Suppose the focus is on the last field of a page, on clicking the tab key i should go to the first field in the page not the url. i tried using tab index, but the problem is that after coming back to the first field from the last field, on clicking on tab again it does not go on as usual, it suddenly jumps to the url from there.
Regards
Krishna

OK Here is what I have ...
public class MultipleEditorsPerColumnJTable extends JTable {
/** Creates a new instance of MultipleEditorsPerColumnJTable */
public MultipleEditorsPerColumnJTable( int the_column) {
this.myColumn = the_column;
this.rowEditors = new ArrayList();
setFocusTraversalKeys(KeyboardFocusManager.FORWARD_TRAVERSAL_KEYS, Collections.EMPTY_SET);
setFocusTraversalKeys(KeyboardFocusManager.BACKWARD_TRAVERSAL_KEYS, Collections.EMPTY_SET);
protected boolean processKeyBinding(KeyStroke ks, KeyEvent e,int condition, boolean pressed) {
boolean isSelected = false;
if (ks == KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_TAB,0)) {
int selRow = getSelectedRow();
int rowCount = getRowCount();
int selCol = getSelectedColumn();
if (selCol == 1) { isSelected= getCellEditor(selRow,selCol).stopCellEditing();}
int targetRow = (selRow + 1) % rowCount;
this.editCellAt(targetRow, 1);
this.getComponentAt(targetRow, 1).requestFocus();
return super.processKeyBinding(ks,e,condition,pressed);
I think I know why the requestFocus() is not working. OK, I have a MultipleEditorsPerColumnJTable (sub of JTale), JTextPane, JButton and JLabel. The textpane, label and button have individual editors and renderers. Each time I want to display a new Row, I re-render these components and add it to the table.
Now with the above code, it still navigates to the next component in the row/ first column in next row depending on the current column. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks,
Praveen.

Use of Tab key on parameter form

Hi,
On Reports 9 parameter form the tab key is not working.
Is there any way to enable tab key?
Thanks,
Dean

I guess not. I must add that this really would be a handly enhancement.
Regards
Sripathy

Tab Key Navigation in JTable

Hello All,
Can anyone please help me with Tab key navigation in a JTable.I
read all the messages in this group but couldn't implement one.It
would be a great help if anyone can provide me a working example of how
to control the tab key in the JTable. I have a JTable with some of the
columns not editable, I want the focus to be in the first cell and
whenever the TAB key is pressed, the focus should go to next editable
cell and select the data in it.For example: if you take a simple table of 4 columns with column 2 not editable, The focus should begin with the first cell(1st column,1st row) and goto (3rd column,1st row) whenever TAB is pressed.It should work in reverse when SHIFT-TAB is pressed.
I'm new to Java Swing.I would greatly appreciate if anyone can provide me a working example.
Thanks in advance,
siddu.

OK Here is what I have ...
public class MultipleEditorsPerColumnJTable extends JTable {
/** Creates a new instance of MultipleEditorsPerColumnJTable */
public MultipleEditorsPerColumnJTable( int the_column) {
this.myColumn = the_column;
this.rowEditors = new ArrayList();
setFocusTraversalKeys(KeyboardFocusManager.FORWARD_TRAVERSAL_KEYS, Collections.EMPTY_SET);
setFocusTraversalKeys(KeyboardFocusManager.BACKWARD_TRAVERSAL_KEYS, Collections.EMPTY_SET);
protected boolean processKeyBinding(KeyStroke ks, KeyEvent e,int condition, boolean pressed) {
boolean isSelected = false;
if (ks == KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_TAB,0)) {
int selRow = getSelectedRow();
int rowCount = getRowCount();
int selCol = getSelectedColumn();
if (selCol == 1) { isSelected= getCellEditor(selRow,selCol).stopCellEditing();}
int targetRow = (selRow + 1) % rowCount;
this.editCellAt(targetRow, 1);
this.getComponentAt(targetRow, 1).requestFocus();
return super.processKeyBinding(ks,e,condition,pressed);
I think I know why the requestFocus() is not working. OK, I have a MultipleEditorsPerColumnJTable (sub of JTale), JTextPane, JButton and JLabel. The textpane, label and button have individual editors and renderers. Each time I want to display a new Row, I re-render these components and add it to the table.
Now with the above code, it still navigates to the next component in the row/ first column in next row depending on the current column. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks,
Praveen.

I can not use the tab key to move to the next field or use the shift and tab to move to the prior field in forms.

After updating to 7.0.1 I can not always use the tab key to move to the next field or use the shift and tab to move to the prior field in forms. This always worked in previous versions and it's much needed for my type of work. Does anyone know of a setting to activate this? If not can the Firefox developers work on this issue (please). I love Firefox but desperately need this feature to work correctly. Thanks!

I tried in safe mode and the tab key worked just fine. I'm not sure about all web forms I've only recently updated to 7.0. The wen form I was using was for appraisal purposes and it has multiple data fields to fill in and also drop down menus to select from. Might I always have to use Firefox in safe mode to be able to utilize the tab between field feature? Thanks for your help!

JTable tab key navigation with JComboBox Cell Editors in Java 1.3 & 1.4

Hello - this is one for the experts!
I have a JTable which has an editable JComboBox as one of the cell editors for a particular column. Users must be able to navigate through the table using the tab key. After editing a cell a single tab should advance the cell selection to the next column and then the user should just be able to start typing to populate the cell.
However, i've come across some really frustrating differences between the Swing implementation of JDK1.3.1_09 and JDK 1.4.2_04 which means this behaviour is very different between versions!....
1. Editing Cells and then advancing to the next column using tab.
Using standard cell editors (based around JTextFields) in 1.3.1 the user has to press tab twice to traverse to the next column after editing. However, in 1.4.2 a single tab key is enough to move to the next column after editing.
2. Editable JComboBox editors and and advancing to the next column using tab.
Using JDK 1.3.1, having entered some text in the editable combo it takes 2 tabs to transfer the selected cell to the next column. With 1.4.2 a single tab while editing the editable combo ends editing and transfers the selection out of the table completely?!?
With these 2 issues I don't know how to make a single tab key reliably transfer to the next cell, between java versions. Can anyone please help me?!??!
(i've attached test code below which can be run in both 1.3 and 1.4 and demonstrates the above behaviour.)
package com.test;
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.table.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
public class TableTest4 extends JFrame {
     private JTable table;
     private DefaultTableModel tableModel;
     public TableTest4() {
          initFrame();
      * Initialises the test frame.
     public void initFrame() {
          // initialise table
          table = new JTable(10, 5);
          tableModel = (DefaultTableModel) table.getModel();
          table.setPreferredScrollableViewportSize(table.getPreferredSize());
          table.setRowHeight(22);
          JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(table);
          getContentPane().add(scrollPane);
          JButton dummyBtn1 = new JButton("Dummy Button 1");
          JButton dummyBtn2 = new JButton("Dummy Button 2");
          // initialise frame
          JPanel btnPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(2, 1));
          btnPanel.add(dummyBtn1);
          btnPanel.add(dummyBtn2);
          getContentPane().add(btnPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
          // set renderer of first table column to be an editable combobox
          JComboBox editableCombo = new JComboBox();
          editableCombo.setEditable(true);
          TableColumn firstColumn = table.getColumnModel().getColumn(0);
          firstColumn.setCellEditor(new DefaultCellEditor(editableCombo));
     public static void main(String[] args) {
          TableTest4 frame = new TableTest4();
          frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          frame.pack();
          frame.setVisible(true);

Run the above code in 1.3 and 1.4 and you can see that after editing a cell, the tab key behaviour works differently between versions.
I don't believe by adding a key listener to the cell editors will have the desired effect.
I've read other posts and from what i've read it looks like the processKeyBinding method of the JTable can be overridden to manually handle key events.
Has anyone done this to handle tab key presses so that the same java app running under 1.3 and 1.4 works in the same way ??? I would really appreciate some advice on this as its very frustrating !

TAB key Navigation distance.....

I want to control the space alloted in a JTextPane when pressing TAB key.
More precisly I need to define the tab length when I press the TAB key.
Any help is appriciated !
Thanks

Here is a working example that sets each of the first 10 tabs to represent 4 characters (the default is 8). This is applied to the entire document. Hope this helps.
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.text.*;
public class TestTextPane extends JFrame
     public TestTextPane()
          JPanel panel = new JPanel();
          setContentPane( panel );
          JTextPane textPane = new JTextPane();
          textPane.setFont( new Font("monospaced", Font.PLAIN, 12) );
          textPane.setText( "abcdefghijklmnop\n\tone\n\t\ttwo" );
          JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane( textPane );
          scrollPane.setPreferredSize( new Dimension( 200, 200 ) );
          panel.add( scrollPane );
          setTabs( textPane, 4 );
     public void setTabs( JTextPane textPane, int charactersPerTab)
          FontMetrics fm = textPane.getFontMetrics( textPane.getFont() );
          int charWidth = fm.charWidth( 'w' );
          int tabWidth = charWidth * charactersPerTab;
          TabStop[] tabs = new TabStop[10];
          for (int j = 0; j < tabs.length; j++)
               int tab = j + 1;
               tabs[j] = new TabStop( tab * tabWidth );
          TabSet tabSet = new TabSet(tabs);
          SimpleAttributeSet attributes = new SimpleAttributeSet();
          StyleConstants.setTabSet(attributes, tabSet);
          textPane.getStyledDocument().setParagraphAttributes(0, textPane.getDocument().getLength(), attributes, true);
     public static void main(String[] args)
          TestTextPane frame = new TestTextPane();
          frame.setDefaultCloseOperation( EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
          frame.pack();
          frame.setVisible(true);

How to control navigation flow in order using tab and shift tab key?

In JDeveloper 11.1.1.3, how to set the focus on ADF components in order while a tab key is clicked.I dint find any useful articles so far but I think Javascript is the only way to acheive this.Can anyone give me any ideas on this pls?
Thanks,
Swathi Patnam

Swathi Patnam wrote:
In JDeveloper 11.1.1.3, how to set the focus on ADF components in order while a tab key is clicked.I dint find any useful articles so far but I think Javascript is the only way to acheive this.Can anyone give me any ideas on this pls?Javascript is possibly one way to achieve it. Take a look at an extract from Frank Nimphius' book [url http://books.google.gr/books?id=wlXyDIEyIHEC&pg=PA615&dq=Nimphius+%22tab+order%22&hl=en&ei=D6bATJqgMYb54Ab06cnTCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false] here suggesting an implementation based on JavaScript. Of course you will have to buy the book to see the complete solution. ;)
Since the tab order is from top to bottom, the other solution suggested - check this post: Re: How to set tab order in ADF - is to keep each horizontal "line" of components in a af:panelFormLayout with its rows attribute set to 1. This is a work-around not based on a tab index but it would do the job if you can consistently group your components inside panelFormLayouts as mentioned.

Navigation using 'Enter' key

hi everyone
I would like to ask if there is a way to make navigation between text fields possible by 'ENTER' key.
for example if we have a tabular form and we want to navigate between fields by 'ENTER' exactly like the 'TAB' key, is it possible??
Thanks alot
Regards

Hello,
Please check if the following can help you - Tabbing between application fields .
Regards,
Arie.

Navigating forms - tab key

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