The focussed control when a screen is loaded

alanjfpaterson

I have a simple question and I would like your input.

For a long time now (all the time I have been working on OP), when a typical screen is loaded the focussed control is the grid. But actually this is not the initial focussed control as defined in the YAML. The control with a TabIndex of 0 is the 'New' button. The reason that the grid got to be the focussed control was down to the way that the grid fired its events. Since I have changed the way that events get fired by the grid the initial focussed control has reverted to the one with a TabIndex of 0.

Here is the tab sequence for a 'typical' screen:

ButtonBar

New
Delete
Filter[/list:u]
Grid
Details panel
- All the details panel controls[/list:u]
  Filter/Find panel (if visible)
  - All the filter/find panel controls[/list:u]
    
    It is important that the Button bar follows immediately after the Details panel because that is the way that users will use the keyboard when adding multiple rows of new data. It will do this if the filter panel is not visible. Otherwise the filter panel tends to get in the way - but that is why there is a keyboard short-cut to get back to the New button.
    
    If the user clicks New we programatically jump the tab position to the details panel.
    If the user clicks the Delete button we programatically jump the tab position to the grid (on the assumption that having selected one row for deletion the user may wish to select a different one).
    
    Anyway - to get back to the point of this post. I was just about to modify the template so as to make the grid the focussed control on screen load when I thought to myself - "Actually the New button is probably a better choice for real-life users." It is us programmers that tend to be interested in checking existing data. But in the real world users will load a screen in order to input new data. So the New button is exactly the control that they would like active immediately. And if they do want to get to the grid it is only a very few TAB presses forward.
    
    I would be interested to hear what you think. I am even wondering if the early programmers of OP intended the New button to have initial focus and designed the tab order accordingly - but it got lost due to the strange events fromm the grid(?) For the time being I am leaving the New button as the default control. But I can easily change it if you think it should be something else.