C# – Tabbing to invisible control in WinForms

ckeyboardwinforms

I have a note editor control in my Windows Forms application:

alt text http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/2033/tabtohiddencontrol.png

I want to make this control accessible through the keyboard: I want to be able to TAB to it, TAB through the controls, and TAB out of it.

Normally this is an easy task, however, the issue is the hidden subject textbox. By design, the subject is editable only when the user clicks on the subject label.

When my control receives focus, I want to start editing the subject; make the subject text box visible and focused.

WinForms doesn't like this; my subject text box is hidden, and so WinForms skips over it when tabbing in and out of my control. How can I make this work?

Best Answer

You will have to add code in previous code's lostfocus (or keypress to check for TAB). And, you will have to add code in next control (after the label textbox) to check for Shift+TAB.

You could also add a label before Subject with mnemonic, so user can press ALT+S to reach there.

This is what I could think of right away.
Correct me, if I have not understood your question.

Related Solutions

.net – Making a WinForms TextBox behave like your browser’s address bar

First of all, thanks for answers! 9 total answers. Thank you.

Bad news: all of the answers had some quirks or didn't work quite right (or at all). I've added a comment to each of your posts.

Good news: I've found a way to make it work. This solution is pretty straightforward and seems to work in all the scenarios (mousing down, selecting text, tabbing focus, etc.)

bool alreadyFocused;

...

textBox1.GotFocus += textBox1_GotFocus;
textBox1.MouseUp += textBox1_MouseUp;
textBox1.Leave += textBox1_Leave;

...

void textBox1_Leave(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    alreadyFocused = false;
}


void textBox1_GotFocus(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // Select all text only if the mouse isn't down.
    // This makes tabbing to the textbox give focus.
    if (MouseButtons == MouseButtons.None)
    {
        this.textBox1.SelectAll();
        alreadyFocused = true;
    }
}

void textBox1_MouseUp(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
    // Web browsers like Google Chrome select the text on mouse up.
    // They only do it if the textbox isn't already focused,
    // and if the user hasn't selected all text.
    if (!alreadyFocused && this.textBox1.SelectionLength == 0)
    {
        alreadyFocused = true;
        this.textBox1.SelectAll();
    }
}

As far as I can tell, this causes a textbox to behave exactly like a web browser's address bar.

Hopefully this helps the next guy who tries to solve this deceptively simple problem.

Thanks again, guys, for all your answers that helped lead me towards the correct path.

R – Tabbing between elements of a view in WPF/xaml

At your root container (in my example it's a user control) set the focus like this:

<UserControl FocusManager.FocusedElement="{Binding ElementName=txtMyTextBox}">
    <TextBox x:Name="txtMyTextBox" />
</UserControl>

Best Answer

Related Solutions

.net – Making a WinForms TextBox behave like your browser’s address bar

R – Tabbing between elements of a view in WPF/xaml

Related Topic