Tab order unexpected changes

[carojvi]

Hello,

I have a form that is pretty much done. My tab order is custom and what I want it to be.

If I go in my form (in Designer) to tweak it some more, for example I wanted to change a text field to a drop down list -without changing anything in size, layout, etc...-, the tab order gets all messed up from there... Is there any way I can get my custom tab order to stick? I don't want to have to redo it every time I make a minor change to the form -it's tedious enough as it is...

Thank you,

Caroline

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi Caroline,

I have had mixed results with custom tab order and (personally) tend to stick with automatic. 

However all if not lost, once you consider that tabbing is affected by:

1. the x/y coordinates of the objects relative to each other. Working from top left downwards and to the right. Therefore if an object on the right is slightly above an object on the left, it will get focus first on tabbing. Therefore it is worth spending some time aligning objects and also using the grid when placing objects.
2. where objects are grouped in a subform, when the first object gets focus, successive tabbing will work right through the subform before going out and continuing with the rest of the form.

You should be able to get the tabbing order you want with this approach and leaving it set to automatic. This way when you make a change it won't mess up the tabbing.

Hope that helps,

Niall

[carojvi]

Thank you. My fields are aligned, so I don't think this is it.

I have never used subforms, is there anything tricky about them?

The way I want my tab order to go is down then right in 'tables' (they are not actually tables, but look like tables the way the fields are aligned). Should I select those tables and wrap each of them in a subform? How will this affect the tab order tab?

Thanks,

Caroline

[Niall_O_Donovan · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If you leave the tab order set to automatic.

Select the first column of objects and right-click. Select 'Wrap in subform':

This will create a subform and place the objects you selected into it. It is a good idea to name subforms as you are going:

Note: any existing scripts in the objects may need to be amended to take into account the subforms.

Because the first column is in a subform, tabbing goes down through the full column first (green arrows). When the tab comes out of the subform, it works from left to right and downwards (orange arrows).

Hope that helps,

Niall

[carojvi]

Thank you, I will try that.