Access Hacks

Hack #26. Be Tab-Smart

Override a form's tab order so that users get to the entry boxes they need.

Setting the tab order is probably not the biggest thing on your mind when you design a form. It doesn't really require much planning or analysis.

Typically, you do it at the end, after all the controls are in place. To be honest, at times I've simply forgotten to set a tab order on my forms. But, of course, the user community lets me know when that happens.

So, I started thinking that if tab stops on a form are really important to users, why not go one step better and make the tab order work more intelligently. On some forms only some boxes receive entries. A smart way to tab through a form in this situation is to sense which entry boxes can be skipped.

This makes sense when the condition or entry into a text box is based on some understandable logic flow. For example, if you're entering information about a new customer, usually you fill in every field. However, when you're entering a piece of information on an existing customer, most likely you tab over several text boxes.

Figure 3-24 shows a form in which a selection has been made from a combo box. The combo box, named Status, has four choices: Enrolled, Walk-In, Phone, and Renewal.

In the Exit event of the combo box, a Select Case statement sets the focus to different form controls, depending on the selection made in the combo box. For example, a status of Walk-In is used for unregistered people who come in without an appointment. ...