2 questions related to Base Design Form

users
#1

In Libreoffice Base The Form Design window, I was trying to get it where the cursor starts in the first field. Right now it is in the top left corner at start up (data entry) like it is when I go into form edit mode. In exploring ways to do this I had clicked on an icon called "Automatic Control Focus" so now the form controls (record advance, 1st record, last record, & new record) are greyed out. The only way to advance is by tabbing from the last field or to go back a record shift & tab from the first field.

I am running Libreofice 4.1.3.2 on Fedora 20 Alpha. So I have two questions:

1. How do I disable this automatic control focus?

2. How do I get the cursor to start in the first field when I'm in Data Entry Mode?

#2

Scott,
I am using LO 3.6.7.2 under Slackware Linux, not 4.x, but it looks like the "Automatic Control Focus" icon is alternate-action. If you go back into form edit mode, click on the icon and see if it turns off (no border around it).

I do not use that feature. I use the "Activation Order" feature to order the controls in my forms. In my 3.x, this icon is two to the left of the "Automatic Control Focus" icon. It contains a checkbox and a radio button (bulls-eye). Clicking on this icon should get you a "Tab Order" window that allows you to edit the activation order of your form's controls by selecting the control from the list on the left and moving it up or down in the list with the buttons on the right. I usually select the "Automatic Sort" first and then go back and refine the order with the up and down buttons.

In addition, if there are any controls you do not want to tab to, such as a read-only control, the tab can be disabled on a control-by-control basis by the "Tabstop" option under the "General" tab in the control's properties dialog.

Hope this helps.
Girvin Herr

#3

I wound up blowing off my original form and recreated it. The Automatic Control Focus function then behaved the way it should leaving the form navigation controls active. So I may have accidentlly changed something to cause my problem. For some reason Activation Order does not fix the starting position for me. The cursor still starts in the upper left corner of the form and not the first field. Once I click on the first field it works fine after that, so using both functions seems to make the form work the way it should.

Scott C.

#4

Hi Scott

From your explanation you do want the Automatic Control Focus active. The Automatic Control Focus will set the focus to the first form control. If you end up in the wrong control then you need to change the Activation Order.

If you set Automatic Control Focus to inactive then you end up with the cursor at the beginning of the document (not in a form control). This is regardless of the setting in Activation Order.

Regards,
Niklas Johansson

Scott Castaline skrev 2013-11-10 04:31: