HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
The value of the
tabindex
attribute is a positive integer indicating the
position of the tagged contents in the overall tab sequence for the doc-
ument. The tabbing order begins with elements with explicit
tabindex
values, starting from the lowest to the highest numbers. Same-valued
tags get tab-selected in the order in which they appear in the document.
All other selectable tags, such as the various form controls and hyper-
links, are the last to get tabbed, in the order in which they appear in
the document. To exclude an element from the tab order, set the value
of
tabindex
to 0. The element is skipped when the user tabs around the
form.
Internet Explorer introduced the concept of tab-order management with
its proprietary
taborder
and
notab
attributes. The
taborder
attribute
functions exactly like the
tabindex
attribute, and
notab
is equivalent
to
tabindex=0
. Internet Explorer versions 5 and later now support the
standard
tabindex
, as do the other popular browsers. Consequently, we
strongly suggest that you use the
tabindex
attribute and not
taborder
.
9.9.5. The accesskey Attribute
Many user interfaces promote the idea of shortcut keys: short se-
quences of keystrokes that give you quick access to an element in the
user interface. HTML 4 and XHTML provide support for this capability
with the
accesskey
attribute. The value of the
accesskey
attribute is a
single character that, when pressed in conjunction with some other spe-
cial key, causes focus to shift immediately to the associated form ele-
ment. This special key varies with each user interface: PC users press
the Alt key, whereas Unix keyboard users typically press the Meta key.
For example, adding
accesskey="T"
to a
<textarea>
element would cause
focus to shift to that text area when a Windows user pressed Alt-T. Note
that the value of the
accesskey
attribute is a single character and is case
sensitive (a capital "T" is not the same as its lowercase cousin, for in-
stance).
All the popular browsers support the
accesskey
attribute. Be careful to
test your hot-key options, however. For instance, while Alt-f works with
