Tabbing navigation

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In computing, tabbing navigation is the ability to navigate between focusable elements (such as hyperlinks and form controls) within a structured document or user interface (such as HTML) with the tab key of a computer keyboard. Usually, pressing Tab will focus on the next element, while pressing Shift + Tab will focus on the previous element. The order of focusing can be determined implicitly (based on physical order) or explicitly (based on tab index). In general, tabbing is cyclical, not linear, meaning that the tabbing will cycle to the first/last element when it moves away from the last/first element.[1][2]

Tab order

The tab order of the

graphical control elements on a form determines the sequence in which the focus will change when the user strikes the tab key
. Usually the tab order is left to right within each row of controls.

Not all controls can receive the focus. In Java, labels can receive focus but in Visual Studio they cannot. Also, the TabStop property (in Visual Studio) can be set to false to prevent a control from receiving the focus.

Customization

On web pages, by default, tabbing navigates through

anchors (such as links) in the order they appear in the character stream (i.e., in the raw HTML). This can be overridden by the page author using the tabindex
attribute, or by disabling a form field.

At the client end,

Mozilla Firefox
can similarly be customized to include or exclude navigation to text areas, other form elements, and anchors.

Alternatives

Most desktop applications and

Mozilla Firefox support caret navigation, which provides a more natural way of document navigation similar to mouse navigation
.

See also

References

  1. ^ "WebAIM: Keyboard Accessibility". webaim.org. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
  2. ^ W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) (2023-12-06). "Keyboard Compatibility". Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Retrieved 2023-12-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ "Dev.Opera — Opera Accessibility: Where We're At". dev.opera.com. Retrieved 2023-12-09.

External links