TabIndex Property
Applies To
ActiveX control, Bound Object Frame control, Check Box control, Combo Box control, Command Button control, List Box control, Option Button control, Option Group control, Subform/Subreport control, Tab control, Text Box control, Toggle Button control, Unbound Object Frame control.
Description
You can use the TabIndex property to specify a control's place in the tab order on a form.
Note The TabIndex property applies only to controls on a form, not controls on a report.
Setting
You can set the TabIndex property to an integer representing the position of the control within the tab order of the form. Valid settings are 0 for the first tab position, up to the total number of controls minus 1 for the last tab position. For example, if a form has three controls that each have a TabIndex property, valid TabIndex property settings are 0, 1, and 2.
Setting the TabIndex property to an integer less than 0 produces an error.
You can set this property by using the control's property sheet, a macro, or Visual Basic.
Note You can also set the tab order of controls on a form by using the Tab Order command on the View menu. This also sets the TabOrder property for the controls.
Remarks
By default, Microsoft Access assigns a tab order to controls in the order that you create them on a form. Each new control is placed last in the tab order. If you change the setting of a control's TabIndex property to adjust the tab order, Microsoft Access automatically renumbers the TabIndex property setting of other controls to reflect insertions and deletions.
In Form view, invisible or disabled controls remain in the tab order but are skipped when you press the TAB key.
Changing the tab order of other controls on the form doesn't affect what happens when you press a control's access key. For example, if you've created an access key for the label of a text box, the focus will move to the text box whenever you press the label's access key — even if you change the TabIndex property setting for the text box.
If you press an access key for a control such as a label that doesn't have a TabIndex property (and thus isn't in the tab order), the focus moves to the next control in the tab order that can receive the focus.
See Also
AutoTab property, Cycle property, TabStop property.
Example
The following example reverses the tab order of a command button and a text box. Because TextBox1 was created first, it has a TabIndex property setting of 0 and Command1 has a setting of 1.
Sub Form_Click()
Me!Command1.TabIndex = 0
Me!TextBox1.TabIndex = 1
End Sub