Name
Selection.setFocus( ) Method — set keyboard focus for a specific text field
Availability
Flash 5
Synopsis
Selection.setFocus(variableName)
Arguments
- variableName
A string representing the path (e.g.,
"_root.myTextField"
or"userName"
) to the text field variable that is to receive focus.
Returns
A Boolean indicating whether the focus attempt succeeded
(true
) or failed (false
). A
focus attempt fails only if the variable specified by
variableName
is not found or if it is not
a text field variable.
Description
The setFocus( )
method sets the keyboard focus
for a text field. It places the cursor in that text field, normally
in order to draw attention to the field or to allow the user to enter
data. The setFocus( )
method can also provide a
handy means of identifying erroneous input to a user. In an online
form, for example, a user may mistype an email address. To alert the
user to the error, we could set the focus to the email-address text
field and ask her to fix the problem. We can also use
setFocus( )
to create a custom Tab key order for
the fields in a form, as shown in the example that follows.
Usage
Note that setting the focus of a text field automatically selects any content in that field. To set a field’s focus without selecting any characters, use the following code:
// First, focus myField Selection.setFocus("myField"); // Now place the insertion point at the start of myField Selection.setSelection(0, 0); // Or at the end of myField Selection.setSelection(myField.length, myField.length); ...
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