WEB PAGES AND FOCUS (TABINDEX)

[Sher Clark]

HELP!

I am writing an intranet / internet application and I only want focus
(pressing TAB key) to cycle between form elements like input boxes, AND NOT
FRAMES AND EVERYTHING ELSE!!! How can I prevent frames and everything else
from receiving focus???

Tools / Technologies:

IE4
JavaScript
VB Script
ASP, ADO, Active X
NT Server, IIS, SQL Server

Thanks and regards to all developers!

Sher Clark
NOSPAMsh...@cpg.com.hk

(Remove NOSPAM before replying. Thanks)

[Jukka Korpela]

[ followups trimmed ]

On Thu, 10 Dec 1998 14:29:12 +0800, "Sher Clark"
<sher_...@cpg.com.hk> wrote:

>I am writing an intranet / internet application and I only want focus
>(pressing TAB key) to cycle between form elements like input boxes, AND NOT
>FRAMES AND EVERYTHING ELSE!!! How can I prevent frames and everything else
>from receiving focus???

I suppose the word "frames" here does not refer to the HTML frame
concept but parts of the browser window outside the document canvas.
Indeed, it seems that on IE 4, tabbing in the last field takes you to
the address (URL) line and after that you have to tab twice more to
get to the first field of the form. On Netscape 4, it only goes via
the Location line so it is somewhat less annoying. On Lynx and on
Opera 3.50, there is no such problem.

So it is basically a browser feature. Setting an explicit tabbing
order using TABINDEX attributes does not seem to have any effect. (It
is supported by IE 4.0 only, and on it the tabbing still goes the same
way in this respect.)

Actually, the specifications don't impose any requirements to what
happens when you tab in the last field. At the end of section 17.11.1,
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/interact/forms.html#h-17.11.1
they say: "When the end (or beginning) of the tabbing order is
reached, user agents may circle back to the beginning (or end)."
So it's just "may", not "must", or even "should".