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/****************************************************************************
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**
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** Copyright (C) 2009 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
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** All rights reserved.
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** Contact: Nokia Corporation (qt-info@nokia.com)
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**
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** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit.
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**
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** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:LGPL$
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** No Commercial Usage
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** this package.
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**
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** GNU Lesser General Public License Usage
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**
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** $QT_END_LICENSE$
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**
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****************************************************************************/
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/*!
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\page focus.html
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\title Keyboard Focus
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\brief Keyboard focus management and handling.
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\ingroup frameworks-technologies
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\keyword keyboard focus
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Qt's widgets handle keyboard focus in the ways that have become
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customary in GUIs.
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The basic issue is that the user's key strokes can be directed at any
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of several windows on the screen, and any of several widgets inside
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the intended window. When the user presses a key, they expect it to go
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to the right place, and the software must try to meet this
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expectation. The system must determine which application the key stroke
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is directed at, which window within that application, and which widget
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within that window.
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\section1 Focus Motion
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The customs which have evolved for directing keyboard focus to a
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particular widget are these:
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\list 1
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\o The user presses \key Tab (or \key Shift+Tab).
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\o The user clicks a widget.
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\o The user presses a keyboard shortcut.
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\o The user uses the mouse wheel.
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\o The user moves the focus to a window, and the application must
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determine which widget within the window should get the focus.
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\endlist
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Each of these motion mechanisms is different, and different types of
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widgets receive focus in only some of them. We'll cover each of them
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in turn.
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\section2 Tab or Shift+Tab
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Pressing \key Tab is by far the most common way to move focus
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using the keyboard. (Sometimes in data-entry applications Enter
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does the same as \key{Tab}; this can easily be achieved in Qt by
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implementing an \l{Events and Event Filters}{event filter}.)
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Pressing \key Tab, in all window systems in common use today,
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moves the keyboard focus to the next widget in a circular
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per-window list. \key Tab moves focus along the circular list in
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one direction, \key Shift+Tab in the other. The order in which
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\key Tab presses move from widget to widget is called the tab order.
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You can customize the tab order using QWidget::setTabOrder(). (If
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you don't, \key Tab generally moves focus in the order of widget
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construction.) \l{Qt Designer} provides a means of visually
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changing the tab order.
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Since pressing \key Tab is so common, most widgets that can have focus
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should support tab focus. The major exception is widgets that are
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rarely used, and where there is some keyboard accelerator or error
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handler that moves the focus.
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For example, in a data entry dialog, there might be a field that
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is only necessary in one per cent of all cases. In such a dialog,
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\key Tab could skip this field, and the dialog could use one of
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these mechanisms:
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\list 1
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\o If the program can determine whether the field is needed, it can
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move focus there when the user finishes entry and presses \gui OK, or when
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the user presses Enter after finishing the other fields. Alternately,
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include the field in the tab order but disable it. Enable it if it
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becomes appropriate in view of what the user has set in the other
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fields.
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\o The label for the field can include a keyboard shortcut that moves
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focus to this field.
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\endlist
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Another exception to \key Tab support is text-entry widgets that
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must support the insertion of tabs; almost all text editors fall
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into this class. Qt treats \key Ctrl+Tab as \key Tab and \key
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Ctrl+Shift+Tab as \key Shift+Tab, and such widgets can
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reimplement QWidget::event() and handle Tab before calling
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QWidget::event() to get normal processing of all other keys.
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However, since some systems use \key Ctrl+Tab for other purposes,
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and many users aren't aware of \key Ctrl+Tab anyway, this isn't a
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complete solution.
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\section2 The User Clicks a Widget
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This is perhaps even more common than pressing \key Tab on
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computers with a mouse or other pointing device.
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Clicking to move the focus is slightly more powerful than \key
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Tab. While it moves the focus \e to a widget, for editor widgets
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it also moves the text cursor (the widget's internal focus) to
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the spot where the mouse is clicked.
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Since it is so common and people are used to it, it's a good idea to
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support it for most widgets. However, there is also an important
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reason to avoid it: you may not want to remove focus from the widget
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where it was.
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For example, in a word processor, when the user clicks the 'B' (bold)
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tool button, what should happen to the keyboard focus? Should it
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remain where it was, almost certainly in the editing widget, or should
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it move to the 'B' button?
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We advise supporting click-to-focus for widgets that support text
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entry, and to avoid it for most widgets where a mouse click has a
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different effect. (For buttons, we also recommend adding a keyboard
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shortcut: QAbstractButton and its subclasses make this very easy.)
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In Qt, only the QWidget::setFocusPolicy() function affects
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click-to-focus.
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\section2 The User Presses a Keyboard Shortcut
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It's not unusual for keyboard shortcuts to move the focus. This
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can happen implicitly by opening modal dialogs, but also
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explicitly using focus accelerators such as those provided by
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QLabel::setBuddy(), QGroupBox, and QTabBar.
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We advise supporting shortcut focus for all widgets that the user
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may want to jump to. For example, a tab dialog can have keyboard
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shortcuts for each of its pages, so the user can press e.g. \key
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Alt+P to step to the \underline{P}rinting page. It is easy to
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overdo this: there are only a few keys, and it's also important
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to provide keyboard shortcuts for commands. \key Alt+P is also
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used for Paste, Play, Print, and Print Here in the \l{Standard
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Accelerator Keys} list, for example.
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\section2 The User Rotates the Mouse Wheel
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On Microsoft Windows, mouse wheel usage is always handled by the
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widget that has keyboard focus. On Mac OS X and X11, it's handled by
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the widget that gets other mouse events.
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The way Qt handles this platform difference is by letting widgets move
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the keyboard focus when the wheel is used. With the right focus policy
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on each widget, applications can work idiomatically correctly on
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Windows, Mac OS X, and X11.
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\section2 The User Moves the Focus to This Window
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In this situation the application must determine which widget within
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the window should receive the focus.
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This can be simple: If the focus has been in this window before,
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then the last widget to have focus should regain it. Qt does this
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automatically.
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If focus has never been in this window before and you know where
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focus should start out, call QWidget::setFocus() on the widget
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which should receive focus before you call QWidget::show() it. If
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you don't, Qt will pick a suitable widget.
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*/
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