Highlighting active fields

[Mandu]

I'm trying to create an ultra-simple invoice generation interface for people who may have never used a computer before.

LaRetta's technique for highlighting the active field works absolutely great, and I'm most appreciative.

I'm stuck, however, with making radio buttons look and act the way I want them to. There are three forms of payment: cash, check, and charge. They're arranged like this:

O Cash

O Check [#_______]

O Charge [Purch.Ord.#________]

As they tab through the interface (and I want them to know that Tab will always take them to the next field) I want them to "visit" Cash, then Check, then Charge. When they arrive at the right one, they should hit the Space bar to select that radio button. If they select Check, I want them to be automatically moved to the check # field; if they select Charge, I want them to be automatically moved to the Purchase Order field. Thence down to start filling in the line items.

I hid transparent buttons behind the three radio buttons, and assigned them to scripts which set Form Of Payment appropriately, and then Goto'ed them to the next relevant field. My invisible buttons are in the tab order but Check# and PurchOrder# are not (because you only visit them conditionally, when taken there by the script). Unfortunately, tabbing out of a field that is not in the tab order seems to always return me back to the first field in the tab order. I'd like to be able to tab to the first line item instead.

Also, I'm unable to make those invisible buttons glow with the highlight color when I've tabbed to them. They get a good heavy border around them, but I'd like the highlight color.

I'd appreciate any help with these issues.

Thanks,

Chap

[m.v.peabody]

faking the tab order

One thought: How about making an exact duplicate of your first line item field and placing it direcly beneath the other one, and making that first in the tab order?

Then when you create a new record, or go to the next record, (or open the file...however you get there!) the last word in the navigation script is "go to" field of your choice (which would currently be #1, but with this change would be #2).

I think the worst that could happen is somebody might tab all the way through and think they had tabbed out of that field when the cursor "disappeared," (Okay, it actually went somewhere they didn't expect ... don't "highlight" this field when you do the rest!) then they would tab again and scratch their head.