Can you suggest some unconventional HTML/CSS attributes and tools for arranging a form in a way that results in a unique tab order?

As part of my role, I am tasked with transforming mock specs provided by our clients into custom web forms. Our application comes equipped with tools specifically developed to streamline this process. Recently, I was presented with a particularly intriguing spec outlining a form containing over 40 data control inputs, neatly organized into six distinct sections on the screen.

The client has specified a very particular order in which the keyboard cursor should navigate through the form. Below is a basic outline detailing how the cursor should flow between sections labeled 1-6 as users tab through the display.

https://i.sstatic.net/Ob5xN.png

Ensuring seamless navigation from section to section solely using HTML and CSS, without the use of any CSS frameworks or JavaScript for field-to-field tabbing via special event hooks, presents a unique challenge. While traditional HTML tabbing follows a source code hierarchy, attempting to manually position div blocks could become cumbersome. Are there alternative methods involving specific HTML/CSS elements and attributes to dictate tab order behavior?

Although I'm not seeking explicit code, exploring unconventional placement techniques utilizing HTML/CSS elements beyond the constraints of grid systems or flex boxes would be greatly appreciated.

Answer №1

Your design layout does not have to dictate the tab sequence. Instead, consider utilizing the tabindex attribute to control the tab order (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Global_attributes/tabindex)

form {
  display: flex; 
  flex-direction: row; 
  flex-wrap: wrap; 
}

#input1 { 
  order: 4; 
}

#input2 { 
  flex: 1 0 100%; 
  order: 3; 
}

#input3 { 
  order: 5; 
}

#input5 { 
  order: 2; 
}
<p>Click on "Input 4" and navigate through using the tab key. Your layout can be as creative as you like, but the tabindex attribute ensures a sequential order for your cursor to follow.</p>
<form> 
  <input placeholder="Input 1" type="text" id="input1" tabindex="4"> 
  <input placeholder="Input 2" type="text" id="input2" tabindex="3"> 
  <input placeholder="Input 3" type="text" id="input3" tabindex="5"> 
  <input placeholder="Input 4" type="text" id="input4" tabindex="1"> 
  <input placeholder="Input 5" type="text" id="input5" tabindex="2"> 
</form>

Similar questions

If you have not found the answer to your question or you are interested in this topic, then look at other similar questions below or use the search

I am interested in utilizing Selenium to interact with a hyperlink within an HTML table

I am currently using the code snippet below to fetch data from the HTML structure provided: //findTables(driver); WebElement content = driver.findElement(By.id("tblTaskForms")); List<WebElement> elements = content.findElements(By.className("form-nam ...

Create a pagination system in CodeIgniter for displaying data

Having trouble implementing paging in the search functionality of my result table. I want to display just 10 rows but can't get it to work properly. I tried reading about Pagination on https://codeigniter.com/, but I'm still struggling to unders ...

Firebase hosting adjusts the transparency of an element to 1% whenever it detects the presence of CSS opacity

I'm currently working on a website using Vue.js and Firebase. Everything runs smoothly locally, including a button with a desired low opacity. However, when I deploy the site to Firebase Hosting, the button's opacity inexplicably changes to 1% an ...

Exploring the depths of Cordova's capabilities: implementing a striking 3D front-to-back screen flip effect

Recently, I came across an interesting app that had a unique feature. By clicking on a button, the entire screen would flip from front to back with a 3D effect on iPhone. It was quite impressive to see in action. The developer mentioned that he achieved t ...

Do we actually need all of these DIVs?

Do you ever find yourself creating a div purely to house another element? Take for example, when designing a menu. You may create a div with specific styling and then place an unordered list within it. Alternatively, you could apply all the styling direc ...

The Troubles of Top Margins in CSS

Hey there, I'm a bit stumped on this issue. I've been trying to apply a 10px top margin to a paragraph inside a div, but instead of creating the space I want between elements, it just seems to push the whole containing div down by 10px. Here are ...

Exploring cross-browser compatibility with the use of CSS3 and JavaScript

Starting a new project to create a fresh website. It seems like many people are leaning towards CSS3 and AJAX, neglecting browsers without JavaScript support. They resort to workarounds like enabling CSS3 through JavaScript in older browsers. Is this the ...

The total sum displayed after decoding JSON always varies in count

I am a beginner when it comes to using APIs and I am facing an issue with counting the data and displaying it in an HTML view. When I use count($data) to count it in the HTML view, the result is different from the actual data received from the API. Below a ...

The Django template fails to implement CSS styling

I am trying to apply text-align: justify and reduce the text width on a Django template file, but it seems that my CSS isn't working for only this specific element. I have no idea how to solve this issue even though my static files and direction are f ...

The li elements in a horizontal menu all have equal spacing between them, filling the width of the ul

I designed a horizontal menu navigation system using HTML elements ul for the main menu container and li for menu list items. The layout is structured with display table for ul and table-cell for li. However, I encountered an issue where there are inconsis ...

How can we achieve the same functionality as React Native's { flex: 1 } in React JS?

I've been diving into React Native development, and now I'm exploring React.js for web applications. However, I'm facing a challenge in creating a simple View that takes up the entire screen to begin experimenting with different components. ...

What's the trick to aligning navigation items side by side?

I'm currently working with the code snippet below: header { height: 110px; width: 100%; margin-bottom: 130px; position: fixed; top: 0; z-index: 11; /*additional styling removed*/ } nav ul { list-style: none; paddin ...

Image fails to download on Safari and iPhones in PHP

Can anyone help me figure out why images are opening in a new window instead of downloading inside Chrome and Firefox on my iPhone? ...

Execute an if statement in PHP upon clicking an image, all while avoiding the need to refresh the

My goal is to trigger my PHP mail(); code with an if statement when an image is clicked. Here's what I've attempted so far: <?php $to = "<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="720013041c111d1f02131c0b321 ...

I'm having trouble with the colors not displaying correctly on my NextJS Tailwind navbar

I've encountered an issue with my navbar where none of the specified colors are being displayed. The code snippet for the navbar is as follows: Codes: 'use client' import Head from 'next/head'; import Link from 'next/link&apo ...

Tips for displaying the number of selected values in a select box label (e.g. Choose an Option)

I am currently using the jQuery multiselect API in my application to allow users to select multiple values. However, I am facing an issue where I need to fetch all the selected values when a button next to the multiselect box is clicked. Unfortunately, I h ...

Troubleshoot: Why is my Bootstrap 3 responsive navigation bar not functioning

When using drop down items that are longer in length, they tend to wrap down to the next level rather than overflowing. I am not well-versed in @media queries, but I've noticed that on mobile devices the dropdown collapses in the navigation menu, whil ...

Animate the leftward disappearance of a div to make it vanish

My goal is to create a user interface where users can navigate through different divs. Here is the HTML code: <article id="realize" class="realizeBox"> <div class="shown"> <div class="heading"> <h2>Realisati ...

I'm perplexed by the inner workings of infinite ajax scroll in fetching additional posts

As someone who is new to JavaScript, I find it challenging to grasp the concept, especially when incorporating it with HTML. Despite this, I decided to experiment with infinite ajax scroll functionality. Below is my code snippet: var ias = jQuery.ias({ ...

Is it possible to use WHILE loops twice in PHP?

Just starting out with PHP and hoping for some assistance. I have a MySQL database table with columns for "id", "img", "link", and "desc". My goal is to echo all of this data in the following format: <div id="featured"> <a target='_b ...