InfoPath Dev

 Hi,

I have a form with different controls, including several drop-down lists. The tab-index is -1 for a few text fields and 0 for the rest of controls. Tabbing through the form moving from one field to the next works as expected for all controls except one drop-down list. For some values in the list the cursor jumps back to the first field in the form, but not for all values. First of all I don’t want the cursor to move back to the top of the form, I want it to move to the next field. And second, why only for some values, but not all? I’ve tried forcing the tab-sequence setting the tab-index for each field, but that didn’t make any difference.

Does anyone have an explanation on this behavior? It would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Therese

Hello,

Tab Index works like below,

-1 = Tab is not move to this field. It will jump to the next field after this field.

0 = Tab default it goes by order. Tab will reach this field by order placed in UI.

1 = Tab is forced to move this field. If you have field tab value 1 then by default cursor will be in this field.

We can give tab order also like 1, 2, 3 .. for each field to move the tab like our specified order.

Hi,

 Thank you for your answer.

The thing is, I've tried giving the tab order 1, 2, 3 etc, but the cursor still jumps back to the first field in the form for some of the values in the drop-down list. The first field has tab-index 0.

Therese

I'm running into this issue, too, with my drop-downs.  My drop-downs are pulling from SharePoint lists, and each time something is selected, the cursor goes to the top of the page.

Any solution yet?

 I'm sorry, but no. No solution yet.

Hi, I hope this will help you out.  I've found that InfoPath's tendency is to tab to the lowest indexed field first so in order to get around this I number all of my fields using only 1 and -1.  So starting from the first field in my forms, I tab index all fields that I want to move to via tab as 1, and any fields I want to skip over as -1.

For any sections/repeating tables etc, it's important to remember to give a tab index to the entire section as well as the fields contained within the section, that should prevent you being sent back to an earlier field in the form while tabbing through it.

Hope that works for you.

Therese, did you ever find a solution to your problem? I'm having the same problem.

No, I haven’t. I just tried Ben’s suggested solution, but it only made the cursor jump back to the first field for every selection in just about every drop down.

Hi Therese, really sorry my suggestion hasn't worked for you.  I was wondering if you would possibly email a copy of the form you're working on, or post a copy on here?  I would be happy to take a look at it and see if I can come up with any other solutions.

Ben

I’m sorry for my late reply, Ben. Thank you so much for your offer. I was working on a version of the form to send you, when I discovered something strange. The form acts differently on my laptop. On my PC the cursor jumps back to the first field in the form each time I select the first or second value in my drop down. On my laptop however, I wasn’t able to reproduce the problem at all! The cursor moved to the next field just like it’s supposed to every time! Thus, my conclusion is that the problem probably isn’t in the form.