Attribute for <SELECT ...>
TABINDEX = integer

TABINDEX is supported by MSIE 4.x and higher and Netscape 6.

Normally, when the user tabs from field to field in a form (in a browser that allows tabbing, not all browsers do) the tab order is the order the fields appear in the HTML code.

However, sometimes you want the tab order to flow a little differently. In that case, you can number the fields using TABINDEX. The tabs then flow in order from lowest TABINDEX to highest.

This code:

<TABLE BORDER CELLPADDING=3 CELLSPACING=5 BGCOLOR="#FFFFCC">
<TR>
<TD>name: <INPUT NAME="realname" TABINDEX=1></TD>
<TD ROWSPAN=3>comments<BR>
<TEXTAREA COLS=25 ROWS=5 TABINDEX=4></TEXTAREA></TD></TR>
<TR> <TD>email: <INPUT NAME="email" TABINDEX=2></TD></TR>
<TR> <TD>department: <SELECT NAME="dep" TABINDEX=3>
<OPTION VALUE="">...
<OPTION VALUE="mkt">Marketing
<OPTION VALUE="fin">Finance
<OPTION VALUE="dev">Development
<OPTION VALUE="prd">Production</SELECT></TD></TR>
</TABLE>

produces this form:

TABINDEX can also be used with <A ...>, <INPUT ...>, <TEXTAREA ...>, and <BUTTON ...>.