Windows 7 where is the keyboard focus?

[stueycaster]

I'm trying to learn keyboard shortcuts. Sometimes I can't see where the focus is. Is there a shortcut to point it out. I haven't been able to find one.

 

[Mike]

Re: where is the *&%$@ keyboard focus?

Focus? Do you mean the magnifier?

Windows Key +

 

[Mitchell_A]

Re: where is the *&%$@ keyboard focus?

Hey stuey. . I'm not quite sure what you mean?
What do you mean by focus?

 

[Mike]

This doesn't make sense to any of us unless you articulate further. There's some shortcuts here:

Link Removed

and here:

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We need more.

 

[stueycaster]

Oops, I'm sorry about the title. Now I know.

What I mean is, when you are moving around the open window using the Tab Key it puts a little dotted line square around whichever item it comes to next. You can then push the Enter Key to activate it. The best name I can think of to call it is "Focus". You guys might (probably) know a better term.

Anyway, sometimes I can't see which item it's on. I was wondering if there is a key (or combination) I can push to highlight it or something.

 

[Mike]

You would sometimes call this the selected value or active selection. Either way, it's up to the program in question. In Windows, when you tab around in Explorer, for example, it very well shows you the selections that are being made by either highlighting them or placing a border around the active selections. If you are not seeing this, check your display options, and turn everything on. However, the default behavior in Windows should be unchanged.

With custom built applications and programs, it can very much be at the discretion of the software developer. If it was developed in such a way that it doesn't use Visual Basic style GUI, and instead uses its own, custom coded interface, you could run into a problem. But in Windows you're always going to get highlighted tabs pretty much everywhere.

How did that disappear? I have no idea. I would seriously consider doing a System Restore if you can't get it back or setting your theme back to default and setting all visual performance settings under System Properties to their maximum.

 

[stueycaster]

Cool, Thanks Mike. Those terms do make a lot more sense. It's great to know people who really know about computers.

The problem I'm having is in Firefox of course. That's the program I spend most of my time in. It's working as it should in Explorer. I guess Tab Key Navigation isn't really an option with web pages in Firefox. I'm going to check out how this works in other browsers.

The reason I am so stuck on Firefox is because I can't stand the idea of surfing the web without NoScript. I had to reinstall Windows for my neighbor a couple weeks ago because of a virus. Even though I love the internet the way I do it scares me half to death.

And again, sorry for the inappropriate title. It won't happen again.

 

[Mike]

In Firefox its alt-F, alt-E, alt-V, alt-H, alt-B, alt-T, alt-H and so on Tab support needs to be provided by the software maker. One reason it may not be in Firefox is that it is still, under the hood, very much a Linux-centric application. The thought may not have crossed their mind or there is some other way to do it.

 

[stueycaster]

Aah-haa, I see a need for a new extension. Too bad I don't develop software. Maybe there is something already there. A little research is in order I see.