Navigation in Windows Forms using enter key

Question

I have textboxes in my Windows Forms application, and I want that when the user presses the ENTER key then the cursor goes to the next textbox.

How do I do this?

Is this a good habit or shall I avoid it? Actually the users are very much prone and have adapted and have become habitual of pressing ENTER key for navigation between textboxes and buttons. So, for them I need to do this.

Please help me with the complete code using two text-boxes as an example.

Answer 1

This is a bad idea. The standard UI is for TAB to move between input fields. You make your app less useable when you elect not to follow well known standards. These standards are what makes UI intuitive.

Answer 2

I would say the nicest way is to create a user control that inherits from TextBox and then override the OnKeyPress method to capture enter and send a tab. Focus will then be given to the next TabIndex on the form, just as though a tab had actually been entered.

The code below does exactly that:

public partial class CustomTextbox : TextBox
{
    public CustomTextbox()
    {
        InitializeComponent();            
    }

    protected override void OnKeyPress(KeyPressEventArgs e)
    {
        if (e.KeyChar == '\r')
        {
            e.Handled = true;
            SendKeys.Send("{TAB}");
        }

    }
} 

You could also put similar code in the KeyPress event handlers for your controls but this saves a lot of duplicate code and unnececessary event handler.

As for whether this is good practice - I would say in general, no, changing the default behaviour of forms is never a good idea, but of course, if this is what your users want and expect, then it is their decision.

Answer 3

Yes, it depends on you

For a sample, you can place 4 textbox on the form and use the following code

private void textBox1_KeyUp(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
    {
        textBox2.Focus();
    }
}

private void textBox2_KeyUp(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
    {
        textBox3.Focus();
    }
}

private void textBox3_KeyUp(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
    {
        textBox4.Focus();
    }
}

It might help you.

Happy coding...

Answer 4

For example you could trap OnKeyUp event, check if it is RETURN and process source control to use Focus() to next control...

Answer 5

Yes you can fire the KeyDown or KeyUp event on a TextBox. To check whether it was the enter key, you can do the following:

//e is the KeyEventArgs from the event.
e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter

Then, if he has pressed the enter key, you can do:

System.Windows.Forms.Control.SelectNextControl();

To set the order of your controls, in Visual Studio look for this little icon:

http://i.stack.imgur.com/nZWLO.png

Click it, and you'll go into tab ordering mode, as I like to call it. Just click the controls in the order you wish them to be and after you're done, click the little icon again. Presto!

Now whether that is a good idea of not, completely depends on how used to it your end users are. If they have always used it like this, and you give them something that doesn't fit into their mind model, they are going to say your software is broken.

Always always always try to emulate what processes the user already has in place in their head.

Read this if you have the time, it's a really light and very good read:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/fog0000000249.html

Answer 6

I think the best way would be to:

1) assign each textbox's TabIndex attribute incrementally (first is x, next is x+1 etc).

2) capture on the OnKeyUp event on the whole form, check the argument to see if the key was RETURN

3) focus the next textbox using its TabIndex. Or simulate the TAB key.

This code should work:

private void Form1_KeyUp(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
    {
        GetNextControl((TextBox)sender, true);
    }
}

This way you end up writing only one function, and you can have as many textboxes as you want.