Setting the tab order (Windows client)

To move between components on a form, users can press the TAB key. Tab order is the sequence in which components receive focus as the user repeatedly presses TAB. The sequence number is a zero-based index number.

To set the tab order of all components on a form, beginning with the first (0) component, use this procedure:

Note: This procedure applies only to the Windows client. For the procedure to set the tab order in the web client, see Setting the tab order (web client).
  1. Open a form and go into Design Mode.
  2. From the Edit menu, select Component > Tab Order.
    Alternately, you can click the "Tab Order" icon.
  3. On the form, click components in the order in which you want users to move to them with the Tab key.
    Note: Read-only components and Static components are not included in the tab order, even if a tab order number is assigned. The framework simply ignores them at runtime.

    A tag near the upper-left corner of each component shows the sequence number of the component in the tab order. Tags are color-coded to show the state of components in the tab order session:

    • Blue text on white indicates that the component has been clicked.
    • White text on red indicates that the component is the last component clicked.
    • White text on blue indicates that the component has not yet been clicked.
    • (On extended forms only) Dark blue text on a light blue background indicates that the component belongs to the base form and that you cannot change the tab order.
  4. Be sure to select:
    • Every component that you want to include in the tab order.
    • A container before you select any components contained within it.
  5. To exit tab-order mode, do one of the following:
    • On the Edit menu, select Component, and then click Tab Order.
    • On the toolbar, click the "Tab Order" icon.
  6. Save.