Creating a tabbing chain

Creating a tabbing chain
Now you’ll add a navigational aid to your form—a tabbing chain that allows viewers to
use the Tab key to move between form fields. To create a tabbing chain, you specify the
order in which the form fields are selected by the Tab key. Adding a tabbing chain should
be the last thing that you do to your form, after you are satisfied with its layout.
Note: Some Web browsers will automatically allow users to use the Tab key to move between
text fields. Some browsers only allow users to use the Tab key to move between text fields and
not other types of form fields. Also, be aware that the tabbing order that you create may or
may not be recognized, depending on the browser and which version the visitor is using.
You can start your tabbing chain with any form field. You’ll start the tabbing chain for this
form with the text field for entering a name.
1 Select the text field in the document window that contains the text “Enter name here.”
The Inspector changes to the Form Text Field Inspector.
ADOBE GOLIVE 6.0 415
Classroom in a Book
2 In the Form Text Field Inspector, select the Tab option. Enter 1 in the Tab text box. This
specifies the text field as the first form field in the tabbing chain.
Selecting text field Specifying text field as first in
tabbing chain
3 Click the Start/Stop Indexing button ( ). Yellow squares appear on each form field
that can be part of the tabbing chain. (The yellow squares also appear on the form labels,
although you can’t add labels to your tabbing chain.)
The yellow square in the text field for entering a name already has a 1 in it, indicating that
this field is the first in the tabbing chain.
4 Click the text field for entering an e-mail address. A 2 appears in its yellow square.
5 Continue to create the tabbing chain by clicking on the yellow squares for the
remaining form fields. (Be sure to click on the yellow squares for the form fields, not
the labels.)
Note: If you want to change the order of your tabbing chain, first deselect the Start/Stop
Indexing button in the Form Text Field Inspector. Then select the form field for which you
want to change the tabbing order number in the document window, and enter the correct
tabbing order number in the Tab text box of the Inspector. Select the Start/Stop Indexing
button to see the result.
6 When you have finished creating the tabbing chain, click the Start/Stop Indexing
button in the Inspector. The tabbing chain has been created, and the yellow squares
disappear.
7 Choose File > Save to save the page.
8 Click the Show in Browser button in the toolbar. The document appears in the Web
browser that you specified in the GoLive Preferences dialog box. Place your cursor in the
text field for entering a name, and press Tab repeatedly to check that the tabbing chain
works as it should.
9 Close your browser.
10 Choose File > Close, and close both the membership.html file and the forms.site file.
In this lesson, you’ve learned how to lay out form fields using a table, and how to add a
variety of form fields to a form. Other form fields and functions that you can add to your
forms include check boxes, a file browser, a key generator, read-only and disabled form
fields, bounding boxes with legends to group form fields, and hidden form fields.