Image-Related Fields and the Tab Order

Image-related fields technically have a place in the tab hierarchy, which follows data fields and inline fields:

1. Data fields

2. Inline fields

3. Signature fields

4. Circle fields

5. Barcode fields

6. Placeable bitmaps

Note:

This tab order hierarchy is not the same as the order of the nodes in the DataView tree.

Within each field type, the fields appear by default in the order they were added to the page. They can be reordered into a more user-friendly order. Except for circle fields, no data can actually be entered when the user tabs to one of these fields. However, users may still need to access the field to actively place the content into the field (e.g., to enter a signature via a signature tool or select a bitmap for a placeable bitmap field). If the field is filled through the program instead of through user intervention, they will probably be disabled or set to read-only in the application software.

In most cases, for fields other than circle fields, you can simply ignore their order. A given page is not likely to contain more than one barcode field, and, except in rare cases, more than one placeable bitmap. If there is more than one signature field and the user needs to access them, you may want to reorder them.

Circle field order

You may want to arrange your circle fields so they are tabbed to in consecutive order. They will be listed under the Circle Fields node in the tree in the order in which they appear:

Circle fields will appear in the order you place them in after the file is saved and reloaded. It does not matter whether they contain long or short data IDs.

Barcode field order

The tab order for barcode fields works the same way as circle fields. The tab order will reflect whatever order you arrange them in. It does not matter if the IDs are long or short. However, order is not usually an issue, as it is not likely that there will be more than one barcode on a page or that the access order will be important if there are.

Signature field order

Signature fields with short data IDs are sorted first, followed by fields with long data IDs. If you have several signature fields on a page (e.g., fields for multiple borrowers on a loan) and they are not in a logical tab order, you may want to change it so they are accessed in order of appearance.

For instance, you may have a page with one signature field for each borrower:

In the graphic above, the signature fields are not sorted in the order in which they would be accessed. Borrower 1 is accessed first, then Borrower 3, followed by Borrowers 2 and 4. It would be more logical to arrange the signature fields so they can be tabbed to horizontally:

Hint:

Because the access order is based on whether the data ID is long or short, if you use both long and short data IDs on your form, you may want to give the signature fields all short or all long IDs to ensure that they can be placed in the order in which you want them to be accessed.

Placeable bitmap field order

Placeable bitmap fields have the same tab order hierarchy as signature fields, with the short IDs first, followed by the long IDs. If you have more than one placeable bitmap field that requires user access on a page and tab order is important, you may want to place them in a logical tabbing order if they are not already.

Note:

If you use I-32 Featuring Editor, you can intermix circle fields and other image-related fields with other fields in the tab order, as I-32 Featuring Editor ignores field types. You can also disable field access to any fields that do not require user access. However, the tab order and field access restrictions will only be maintained in applications that handle featured forms. In other applications, the tab order will be the order that is saved in I-32 Forms Design and any fields that you disabled will be accessible.