Give focus to an Edit Field

In the app I'm making, I need to move the cursor to a textbox when I press a button such that it is ready for input. I tried placing

uicontrol(app.DistanceEditField)

in the callback for the button but it doesn't work because I’m using App Designer (MATLAB R2017a). Is there a similar way that would work in the App Designer?

Answer 1

[Elizabeth Reese]

This functionality with "uicontrol" is currently unavailable in App Designer. I have forwarded your feedback to our developers and they will consider adding support for this in a future release of MATLAB.

[Morten Haastrup]

Thanks for the answer. I will look forward to the next version of MATLAB.

[Matt J Dunn]

Is there an update on the availability of this feature? I would find this very helpful.

[Jonathan Rothfus]

It would really, really be nice if this was added.

[Markus Leuthold]

@Elizabeth Reese, after almost two years, is there an update with regards to setting focus? This is quite a basic feature.

[Shae Morgan]

I second this question another 6 months later. This functionality is needed!

[Paul Macey]

+1

[Victor Richard Selve]

+2

[Kris Hoffman]

+3

[Alexander Neumayer]

+4

[Eliot Mayer]

I just found this conversation when looking for a way to set the cursor / focus to a particular Edit Text field. I see that a staffer put this request in almost 4 years ago. I also gather that this capability was available in GUIDE. What is the present status?

[Adam Danz]

It's common to cycle through UI components using the tab key (or shift+tab for reverse-cycle).

I realize it's one more key to press but it's not a big deal to press the butten and then [tab] which could activate the textbox (see my ansr for re-ordering tab order).

Another alternative is to include a pop-up modal dialog that responds to the button press and contains a field to collect the textbox info.

Another alternative is to highlight the textfield background upon pressing the button to draw users' attention to the text box.

I do agree that it would be nice to programmatically control focus in Apps.

[dpb]

And it's now over 4 years since submitted... :(

[Ralf Ritter]

This feature would be really helpful.

Answer 2

[Adam Danz]

In MATLAB R2022a and later

Using AppDesigner in MATLAB R2022a and later, control tab/focus order in AppDesigning using the new Tab Order tool which is highlighted in this Community Highlight. Additionally, specify focus to a specific UI component using the new focus function introduced in 22a which is highlighted in this Community Highlight..

For example, the callback function to a ui button could set the focus to a specified ui component.

In MATLAB R2020b and later

Starting in MATLAB R2020b, control the tab order of ui objects by changing their stack order (using AppDesigner or uicontrol). AppDesigner provides the Reorder tool found in Design View > Canvas tab or by right-clicking a component in the Component Browswer and selecting Reorder from the context menu (see R2020b release notes and a screenshot in the Answers forum ). Users can then tab to the next UI component. Recall that the top-to-bottom order of components in the Component Browswer is in reverse order of the tab/focus-order so moving a component backwards shifts its focus order forward in the stack.

Prior to R2020b

To change the focus order of ui components in AppDesigner prior to R2020b, you could use HierarchyViewer from the file exchange.

This answer has been updated to reflect new features that were released after the original answer as written.

[Eliot Mayer]

Adam Danz - Thank you for pointing out the Re-Order tool. I think that will address my issue.

[Steffen]

You can also automate the TAB pressing task by using a robot:

robot = java.awt.Robot;
robot.keyPress(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_TAB);
robot.keyRelease(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_TAB);

see GUI automation using a Robot - Undocumented Matlab

Thus, after pressing the Button you directly get to the text field an can start to write without any further action.