ScriptUI - how to go to the first control from anywhere

[K.Daube]

There is a TAB order - by default the order of creation of controls. I run into some questions here:

• I do not find a property to explicitly define the tab order. → How to?
• When amidst an assembly of controls and i want to got to the first one (tab index = 0), it seems that I have the option to back-TAB as often as nescessary - HOME does not work at all. → Any other ideas?

Thank You for any insight.

[K.Daube · Accepted solution]

Peter Kahrel from the InDesign forum gave this answer:

• You can't change the tab order in ScriptUI. It is the order of the controls in the code.
• Most controls have the property .active. You can use that as the window's entry point, so to speak.
• The tab key is the only one available to navigate a window.

[Fightergator]

I've seen ScriptUI in some of the code examples on this forum, but am not very familiar with what it does and why someone writing a script would want to use it.  Is there a good tutorial on ScriptUI that I can use to get smarter, or a couple of simple examples of how they work. 

[frameexpert]

This is the absolute, essential guide. I recommend printing it out and trying the examples.

https://creativepro.com/files/kahrel/indesign/scriptui.html

ScriptUI is for making nice interfaces for your scripts. Here is a dialog box from my TableCleaner script, written with ScriptUI code:

[Fightergator]

Thanks Rick.  I'll check it out.  This would be the next logical step in my ExtendScript education.  I was doing some basic control panels in VBA, and can see where they would be useful in one of the scripts I'm working on now.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving.