Tab vs. Enter between fields and Popup Lists

[kennedy]

Power users will tab to each field, type in the value with as few keystrokes as possible, and tab to the next... its good to make sure that works well and that you can get to all the fields without having to resort to the mouse.

Popup lists are good and bad. They are good in that they allow you to tab into the field; they are good in that they allow you to just type the first character; but they are bad because hitting tab to go to the next field DISCARDS the value you just typed!! Instead, you must remember to hit ENTER to go to next field from a popup list. Ick!

Questions:

1) Is there anyway to make pressing <Tab> to leave a popup list actually accept the value like pressing <Enter> does?

2) Is there an effective way to change from using <Tab> to using <Enter> to move to next field from all the other fields?? So, then popup lists aren't different, as all fields use <Enter> to go to the next field.

[LiveOak]

You might take a look at the Activator plug-in from Troi. It allows the triggering of a script upon exit from a field.

-bd

[CobaltSky]

There was a win platform plug-in that did what you want - called TabbyKeys, but it was from e4marketing, and I think I read somewhere on this forum that they have bitten the dust, so a copy of TK may be hard to come by.

In native FileMaker, you can set a looping script running that does a:

Loop

Pause/Resume Script [ ]

Go to next field

Exit loop if ["Status(CurrentFieldName) = "TheLastFieldOnYourLayout" "]

EndLoop

---

...and then the enter key (on the keypad) will act as a quasi-tab by calling a 'continue'. The tab could be attached to the first field, so users could activate it by clicking into the first field. However users would have to press the Esc key if they wanted to stop part-way through the layout and go do something else.

If this approach is of interest to you, you might also want to take a look at the 'Return' plug-in from Peninsula Software Group - which can toggle the return key to issue an 'enter' keystroke.

[kennedy]

Hmmm... but then if the user clicked into other than the first field, weirdness would result.

Would it work to have each field activate a script that did Pause and then Go to Next Field? The key would be that Go to Next Field would need to activate the script in that next field. Would it?

I've never quite understood some of the field activating stuff. For example, consider a field with a popup list. If you do Go to Field into that field, no popup. But if you Exit Record and then Go to Field you get the popup. Why?

[CobaltSky]

Would it work to have each field activate a script that did Pause and then Go to Next Field? The key would be that Go to Next Field would need to activate the script in that next field. Would it?

There is a problem with this, in that you'd need the script running before you exit the field, so that the enter key can be used to exit the field.

You'd have to define the field as a button and attach a script that started with a go to field for that field, then entered a loop. This is a bit tedious, because you need a separate script for each field (unless you've got a plug-in that returns mouse-coordinates, such as DialogMagic or MouseGrabber).

As regards, triggering scripts on field exit using the Activator plug-in (or the other equivalents such as Events or SCRIPTit etc), this is done by inclusion of an external function call to the plug-in within a validation script, and therefore only takes effect if the field has been modified. It's therefore unlikely to be suitable for this application.

[CobaltSky]

Would it work to have each field activate a script that did Pause and then Go to Next Field? The key would be that Go to Next Field would need to activate the script in that next field. Would it?

There is a problem with this, in that you'd need the script running before you exit the field, so that the enter key can be used to exit the field.

You'd have to define the field as a button and attach a script that started with a go to field for that field, then entered a loop. This is a bit tedious, because you need a separate script for each field (unless you've got a plug-in that returns mouse-coordinates, such as DialogMagic or MouseGrabber).

As regards, triggering scripts on field exit using the Activator plug-in (or the other equivalents such as Events or SCRIPTit etc), this is done by inclusion of an external function call to the plug-in within a validation script, and therefore only takes effect if the field has been modified. They are therefore unlikely to be suitable for this application.

[CobaltSky]

Would it work to have each field activate a script that did Pause and then Go to Next Field? The key would be that Go to Next Field would need to activate the script in that next field. Would it?

There is a problem with this, in that you'd need the script running before you exit the field, so that the enter key can be used to exit the field.

You'd have to define the field as a button and attach a script that started with a "Go to Field" script step for that field, then entered a loop. This is a bit tedious, because you'd need a separate script for each field (unless you've got a plug-in that returns mouse-coordinates, such as DialogMagic or MouseGrabber).

As regards, triggering scripts on field exit using the Activator plug-in (or the other equivalents such as Events or SCRIPTit etc), this is done by inclusion of an external function call to the plug-in within a validation script, and therefore only takes effect if the field has been modified. They are thus not likely to be of use for this application.

[kennedy]

So, are you illustrating a loop for us?

You'd have to define the field as a button and attach a script that started with a "Go to Field" script step for that field, then entered a loop.

If I can attach a script to field 'Foo' that starts whenever you enter field 'Foo', by clicking or by 'Go to Field "Foo"' or by a Go to Next Field from the previous field, then that script could simply do:

Pause/Resume Script

Go to Next Field

It starts and immediately pauses... the user types whatever into the field and then hits enter... that resumes the script and it then does Go to Next Field... that hits the next field, say "Bar", which has the same script... it pauses waiting for Enter to be pressed, and then progresses to the next field. No loop necessary, but...

Is there a way to attach a script to a field such that it gets invoked whenever you enter that field, no matter how you enter that field???

[CobaltSky]

Is there a way to attach a script to a field such that it gets invoked whenever you enter that field, no matter how you enter that field???

'fraid not, sadly. On-focus and On-blur events are not as yet part of the FileMaker repertoire

As things stand, clicking into the field (with the field object defined as a button) is the only mechanism available. If users tab into the field, it will not trigger the script. Hence the need for the loop...