Cursor in a textbox window

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I have a complex class full of controls including a Rich Text box and a regular textbook. The class is designed as a tab page to be added once or multiple time to a tab control. This class inherits Windows.Forms.Form.

When the page is added, I want the cursor to be in the ordinary text box.

It isn’t. There is a prescribed way to do this:

To programmatically click the right mouse button

1. Create a MouseEventArgs whose Button property is set to the System.Windows.Forms.MouseButtons.Right value.

2. Call the OnMouseClick method with this MouseEventArgs as the argument.

This is what I’ve done.

Private Sub t_ControlAdded(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.ControlEventArgs) Handles t.ControlAdded

gbControls.TabIndex = 0 ' container for the textbox

tb.TabIndex = 0 ' taborder is 0

Dim a As New MouseEventArgs(Windows.Forms.MouseButtons.Left, 1, 8, 8, 0)

tb_MouseClick(tb, a)

End Sub

Private Sub tb_MouseClick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles tb.MouseClick

OnMouseClick(e)

End Sub

I am able to execute within the class after the tabpage is added via the Tabpage’s (named t) ControlAdded event. This all works. Functionality of the textbox is normal. Tabbing and taborder works as expected. When I left-click on the textbox with the mouse the cursor appears. I’ve trapped the event arguments in the debugger and have constructed an identical mouse event.

Btw, the OnMouseClick method only appears to be available on the textbox’s mouseclick event.

Any ideas

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Cursor in a textbox window

enrialva

Control added is called when the control is added, not when the index is changed. You need to handle the SelectedIndexChanged event of the tab control if you want your code to be called when the page becomes visible.
rimz

This will only work on the last tab control in the list. Why not just grab the SelectedTabPage property of the tab control

Yes, a fully recursive solution would be better, but I have no idea why I got that error when I tried to impliment that. Another solution is to create classes derived from TabPage, and add a method that sets the focus to a control that you set, in other words, add a control property and a method that calls focus on it. Then when the index changes, if the selectedtabpage is of that type, cast it and call the method.
Quicker
bump
ausmock

Oh, OK. I'd still figure out the recursive solution if I were you, just in case your form changes, and because it's 'nicer'. :-)
regthesk8r

Here's the whole thing all you need is a large form with a tab control,

and and a go and exit button

Public Class Form1

Protected a As Tabp

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

End Sub

Private Sub cbGo_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cbGo.Click

a = New Tabp(TabControl1)

TabControl1.Controls.Add(a.GetTab)

TabControl1.SelectTab(TabControl1.Controls.Count - 1)

End Sub

Public ReadOnly Property GetTabSize() As Size

Get

For i As Short = 0 To Me.Controls.Count - 1

If Me.Controls(i).GetType.ToString = GetType(Windows.Forms.TabControl).ToString Then

Return Me.Controls(i).Size

End If

Next

End Get

End Property

Private Sub cbExit_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cbexit.Click

End

End Sub

Private Sub TabControl1_ControlAdded(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.ControlEventArgs) Handles TabControl1.ControlAdded

End Sub

End Class

Public Class Tabp

Inherits Windows.Forms.Form

Protected Friend WithEvents t As New TabPage

Protected Friend WithEvents rtf As New RichTextBox

Protected Friend WithEvents tb As New TextBox

Protected Friend WithEvents cbOK As New Button

Protected Friend WithEvents cbCancel As New Button

Protected Friend WithEvents ctxmnu As New ContextMenu

Protected gbControls As New GroupBox

Protected gbRtf As New GroupBox

Protected Parent1 As TabControl

Public Sub New(ByVal ParentControl As TabControl)

Parent1 = ParentControl

gbRtf.Size = Form1.GetTabSize

gbRtf.Height -= 100

gbRtf.Width -= 20

ctxmnu.MenuItems.Add("test")

t.Text = "Blank Document"

gbRtf.Location = New Point(10, 10)

rtf.ScrollBars = RichTextBoxScrollBars.Both

rtf.Size = New Size(gbRtf.Width - 10, gbRtf.Height - 20)

rtf.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.None

rtf.Location = New Point(5, 10)

rtf.ContextMenu = ctxmnu

gbControls.Controls.Add(tb)

t.Controls.Add(gbControls)

gbControls.Height = 50

gbControls.Width = gbRtf.Width

gbControls.Left = gbRtf.Left

gbControls.Top = gbRtf.Top + gbRtf.Height + 5

gbControls.Controls.Add(cbOK)

gbControls.Controls.Add(cbCancel)

t.Controls.Add(gbRtf)

gbRtf.Controls.Add(rtf)

tb.Location = New Size(20, 20)

tb.Size = New Point(gbControls.Width - 200, 20)

tb.TabStop = True

tb.Name = "tb"

tb.AcceptsReturn = True

cbOK.Size = New Size(50, 30)

cbCancel.Size = New Size(50, 30)

cbOK.Location = New Point(tb.Left + tb.Width + 120, 15)

cbCancel.Location = New Point(tb.Left + tb.Width + 20, cbOK.Top)

cbCancel.Text = "Cancel"

cbOK.Text = "OK"

End Sub

Public Function GetTab() As TabPage

Return t

End Function

Private Sub Tb_KeyPress(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyPressEventArgs) Handles tb.KeyPress

If e.KeyChar = Chr(Keys.Enter) Then

t.Text = tb.Text.Substring(0, tb.Text.IndexOf(" "))

e.Handled = True

End If

End Sub

Public Sub Dispose1()

t.Dispose()

ctxmnu.Dispose()

ctxmnu = Nothing

rtf.Dispose()

t = Nothing

rtf = Nothing

gbRtf.Dispose()

gbControls.Dispose()

gbControls = Nothing

cbOK.Dispose()

cbOK = Nothing

cbCancel.Dispose()

cbCancel = Nothing

tb.Dispose()

tb = Nothing

End Sub

Private Sub cbCancel_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cbCancel.Click

t.Hide()

Parent1.Controls.Remove(t)

Parent1.SelectTab(0)

Me.Dispose1()

Me.Dispose()

End Sub

Private Sub t_ControlAdded(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.ControlEventArgs) Handles t.ControlAdded

gbControls.TabIndex = 0 ' container for the textbox

tb.TabIndex = 0 ' taborder is 0

'Dim a As New MouseEventArgs(Windows.Forms.MouseButtons.Left, 1, 8, 8, 0)

'tb_MouseClick(tb, a)

tb.Focus()

End Sub

Private Sub tb_MouseClick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles tb.MouseClick

'Me.OnMouseClick(e)

End Sub

Private Sub rtf_MouseDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles rtf.MouseDown

If Not SystemInformation.MouseButtonsSwapped() Then

If e.Button = Windows.Forms.MouseButtons.Right Then

ctxmnu.Show(rtf, e.Location)

End If

Else

If e.Button = Windows.Forms.MouseButtons.Left Then

ctxmnu.Show(rtf, e.Location)

End If

End If

End Sub

End Class
lx
sure :-)
david123098

Because you're creating this page dynamically, you need some other method of finding the text box. I tried to add a recursive method and call it from selectedindex changed:

Private Sub SetFocus(ByVal ctrl As ControlCollection)

Dim c As Control

For Each c In ctrl

If TypeOf (c) Is TextBox Or TypeOf (c) Is RichTextBox Then

c.Focus()

End If

SetFocus(c.Controls)

Next

End Sub

But I got errors converting from TabPageControlCollection to ControlCollection. I tried iterating through the top level first and calling this, I got an error converting ControlCollection to ControlCollection. In each case, the actual error was something like 'number must be less than infinity'. I don't know why, but as only one level of recursion was required, the following code works.

Private Sub OnselectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles TabControl1.SelectedIndexChanged

Dim c As Control

For Each c In TabControl1.SelectedTab.Controls

If TypeOf (c) Is TextBox Or TypeOf (c) Is RichTextBox Then

c.Focus()

End If

Dim ctrl As Control

For Each ctrl In c.Controls

If TypeOf (ctrl) Is TextBox Or TypeOf (ctrl) Is RichTextBox Then

ctrl.Focus()

End If

Next

Next

End Sub

Naturally, the bug I had needs fixing so you can use recursion instead of doing it like this, but the basic approach of finding the control and calling Focus() works just fine. The other approach is to maintain a hashtable of tab pages to controls to focus, and look that up to call Focus when the tab page changes.
jm47048

Cgraus, thank you for your reply.

That recommendation came from the VS2005 help file, actually I think it's really cool only it doesn't work.

I've experimented with setting the focus and it hasn't worked.

How would you set the focus, cgraus
David Blaettler

Ok thank you.... I got it... but it was NASTY!

I gues it must be a question of sequencing and I've seen this before and had similar problems. Anyway here the solution and it's not pretty because it knows too much about the class etc. There really should be a better way to do this.

Private Sub TabControl1_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles TabControl1.SelectedIndexChanged

Dim lasttab As Control = TabControl1.Controls(TabControl1.Controls.Count - 1)

Dim c As Control

For i As Short = 0 To lasttab.Controls.Count - 1

If TypeOf lasttab.Controls(i) Is GroupBox Then

c = lasttab.Controls(i)

For ii As Short = 0 To c.Controls.Count - 1

If TypeOf c.Controls(ii) Is TextBox Then

c.Controls(ii).Focus()

Exit Sub

End If

Next

End If

Next

End Sub

End Class

Thank you!!!!!!
dakhili

cgraus... thank you but I still have a problem....

Here is what I did....

Private Sub t_ControlAdded(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.ControlEventArgs) Handles t.ControlAdded

        gbControls.TabIndex = 0 ' container for the textbox

        tb.TabIndex = 0          ' taborder is 0

        For i As Short = 0 To t.Controls.Count - 1

            If t.Controls(i).Name = "gbcontrols" Then

                Dim gb As GroupBox = t.Controls(i)

                For ii As Short = 0 To gb.Controls.Count - 1

                    If TypeOf gb.Controls(ii) Is TextBox Then

                        gb.Controls(ii).Focus()

                        Exit Sub

                    End If

                Next

            End If

        Next

    End Sub

It finds the control and executes the .focus... but... there is no cursor in the textbox.
martin911

Can't you set the Focus of the textbox when the tab page becomes visible Similating a mouse click seems a bit hacky to me.
Josh Smith

I created a tab control and put two tabs on it, a richtextbox on one and a text box on the other. Then I did this:

If TabControl1.SelectedIndex = 0 Then

TextBox1.Focus()

Else

RichTextBox1.Focus()

End If

seems to work fine :-)
tdumitr

I made it work on the last control on the list on purpose.

You see, I want it only when I've just added the control so I did that on purpose.

This text box is for titles, it's the first thing one does is to fill in the title. If another page is selected, I won't even want to the cursor to be in the text box when it returns because the information will already be in the textbox.
Aero.NET

I tried that.

Want to see the code
Cursor in a textbox window

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