Setting Tab order in FrameMaker

[ericCessna]

Does anyone know how to change the tab order in FrameMaker? I have a large table to make and I want to change the tab order to go down the table instead of across. I think I did this one before but I can't remember how I did it. CRS or something.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Never heard of that one - what version of FM are you using?

[K.Daube]

Maybe the tab order changes with the numbering order : Table designer > Basic > Numbering.

See https://www.daube.ch/docu/files/compendium.pdf page 141

[Bob_Niland]

Just treid that in FM2020, and it didn't change tab nav.

[Barb Binder]

Hi Eric:

What do you mean by tab order? Are you trying to change how you navigate within the table? Are you adding numbering that needs to go down and not across?

~Barb 

[ericCessna]

That is exactlly what I'm trying to do. I have three long lists that I need to put in a table. The first is numbers, the second is an ON or OFF, and the third is an explaination. So I want to enter the number then hit tab and have my curser drop to the next lower cell and just jump to the next cell across.

[Winfried Reng]

With tab you jump from one cell to the next.

And with the up and down arrows you jump to the next or previous row.

With these keys you can easily jump from cell to cell and enter your values.

If this is not what you want to do, then please explain more thoroughly what you want to do.

[frameexpert]

Here is a little script that hijacks the Tab navigation in a table and makes the Tab key move down instead of across. When it gets to the bottom, it jumps back to the top of the same column, but the script could be modified to go to the top of the next column instead. Put this script in your

C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\FrameMaker\<Version>\startup

folder, where <UserName> is your Windows login name and <Version> is your FrameMaker version number. If the startup folder doesn't exist, create it. Quit and restart FrameMaker and try it out.

#target framemaker

setupNotifications ();

function setupNotifications () {
    
    Notification (Constants.FA_Note_PreFunction , true);
}

function Notify (note, object, sparam, iparam) {
    
    // Handle the before function event.
    switch (note) {
        
        case Constants.FA_Note_PreFunction :
            // Tab in a table cell.
            if (iparam === 537) {
                // Instead, go to the cell below and highlight the text.
                Fcodes ([FCodes.KBD_TBLIP_BELOW, FCodes.KBD_TBLSEL_CELLTEXT]);
                ReturnValue(Constants.FR_CancelOperation);
            }
            break;   
    }
}

[frameexpert]

You can use arrow keys to navigate in a table. The down arrow key should move you down the table.