One thing you could try... If you tab off the end of a row with data in it, create a new row. However, if you tab off the end of a row with NO data in it, tab out of the control.
The premise being that you only want one empty row at a time. Another option could be adding a small "jump out" button after the last column, which you could hit SPACE or ENTER on, to exit the control and put the focus on the next thing outside the grid. Something like this: [cell] TAB [cell] TAB [jumpout btn (diagonal arrow?)] SPACE ==> Exit grid Bryan Minihan -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chris Collingridge Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 9:13 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Tab order - how to escape from a grid that uses tabs An interesting question has come up on one of our products, and I'd be interested to hear if anyone has (a) come across this before, (b) got any references offering advice, or (c) just has a idea. We have a grid - hosted within a dialog that contains other controls - in which the tab key moves the focus along the row to allow data entry. When you get to the end of a row, hitting tab creates a new row in the grid. This interaction is already very well understood by our users and extensively used for fast data entry. The question has arisen though - how to get the focus out of the grid so that you can access the other controls? Should we just rely on access keys to enable that? Obviously tab will just continue to move through the grid infinitely (more or less) ,creating new rows all the time. Cheers, Chris. ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
