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MJK
Helper III
Helper III

Tab Index not working

Hi All,

 

I have given tab index 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,.... so on to all my input controls on the screen. However when I run the screen in preview mode the tab order is top to bottom and left to right irrespective of the tab index. Any idea why this is happening?

 

12 REPLIES 12
RandyHayes
Super User
Super User

@MJK 

The TabIndex does not work in that way.  PowerApps really only recommends one of two values for TabIndex - either 0 or -1.

0 means it will participate as a tab stop control.  -1 means it will not stop via tab.

PowerApps tabs from top to bottom, left to right in a Z pattern.  The X and Y properties of the controls will determine when they are selected by tab.

If you have a control in the top left with a Y property of 2 and a control to the left of it with a Y property of 1, then PowerApps will tab from the second control to the first because it is going from top down and the second control is more "top" then the first.

 

You can read more about this and other options for grouping controls with the Experimental Enhanced Group Control.

 

I hope this is helpful for you.

 

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Actually tabbing the controls doesn't even do the "Z" pattern. it seems to randomly jump around to controls in on particular order at all.

@dave-jorgensen1 

If your Tab Indexes are all 0 and there are no groupings of controls on the screen, it will "Z" through it.

If any of the above is not the case, it will seem random.

If you've enabled the container control option in the settings then this will change the behavior of the tab as well (if you use a container)

_____________________________________________________________________________________
Digging it? - Click on the Thumbs Up below. Solved your problem? - Click on Accept as Solution below. Others seeking the same answers will be happy you did.
NOTE: My normal response times will be Mon to Fri from 1 PM to 10 PM UTC (and lots of other times too!)
Check out my PowerApps Videos too! And, follow me on Twitter @RandyHayes

Really want to show your appreciation? Buy Me A Cup Of Coffee!
Conax
Helper III
Helper III

Grouping is recommended as one of the best practices. Having that said, I am finding this issue more obvious for the controls in a gallery. I have layed out the controls one after another, all with same height, same Y position. But after putting my cursor in the first control and press the tab key, sometimes it jumps randomly to the other controls, and sometimes it simply doesn't jump to any other control in the gallery at all, and just tab out to the browser controls...

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi, 

 

I understand that the tab stop value should be -1 or 0 but it gives me the following error when doing the accessibility check- yet my value is -1 which should be a valid value. 

 

Also, it's saying it should be 0 or greater? I'm confused.

 

DanielRK_0-1650451169638.png

 

 

DanielRK_1-1650451171780.png

 

Please help!

 

Thank you.

 

Regards,

 

Daniel

Anonymous
Not applicable

?

NWPMO2021
Frequent Visitor

This still seems to be a persistent problem.  What I've found to be the culprit is renaming a field.  So when I add a text input field, as long as I don't rename it, the tab order will work.  As soon as I rename any field, it could throw the whole tab order out of whack.  Sticking to default field names appears to be the only option that will work for me.  So TextInput1, TextInput2, etc.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi @NWPMO2021 ,

 

Thanks for your feedback. I will give this a try. 

 

Will this happen if you add new fields to your datasource?

 

Regards,

 

Daniel

It might, but I haven't had to add fields to my datasource yet.  The problem also can randomly happen (even if I don't rename fields).  To combat this, I set the OnVisible property of the Screen that has the issues with the tab order, to Refresh the datasources connected to my PowerApp.  This is using the Refresh() formula.  This has fixed the problem for me when navigating to and from the form that has the issues with tab order.

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