How do I put focus on a TextBox when a form loads?

Question

I have a TextBox in my C# program. I need focus to be on this TextBox when the program starts.

I tried this on Form_Load:

MyTextBox.Focus();

but it doesn't work.

How do I put focus on this when the form loads?

Rodd

Answer 1

Set theActiveControl property of the form and you should be fine.

this.ActiveControl = yourtextboxname;

Selvage

I tried this for ComboBox. But it doesn't work either! – Avaunt

Thanks this worked for me where everything else did not. Not sure why Tab Index = 0 won't work but there are probably strange order of operations going on while loading the form/showing dialog. – Apologist

active control shows to me. but it doesn't work functionally. :( – Amin

TRY THIS >>> this.ActiveControl = yourtextboxname.Control; – Amal

This works great, but why didn't MyTextBox.Focus(); work - that seems to work fine once the program is running. – Mill

Write this.ActiveControl = textBox1; Everyone understands the meaning of "textBox1". "youttextboxname" sounds like ... = "MyTextBox"; – Irfan

This worked perfectly for me. I placed this line directly after the call to InitializeComponent() in the Form constructor. This was needed because my textBox was not placed directly on the Form, but inside a groupBox on the Form. Therefore, the TabIndex of my textBox was not visible to the Form. (Maybe the same thing happens if the textBox is in a table layout...?) – Jezabelle

@Mill it will, but you have to make sure the form is rendered prior to calling it. Call it in the shown event method – Bloodfin

Answer 2

You cannot set focus to a control if it has not been rendered. Form.Load() occurs before the controls are rendered.

Go to the form's events and double click the "Shown" event. In the form's shown event handler call the control.Focus() method.

    private void myForm_Shown(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // Call textbox's focus method
        txtMyTextbox.Focus();
    }

Bloodfin

Answer 3

check your tab order and make sure the textbox is set to zero

Bailly

Working. Or just tabindex to be the first cursor "focusable" element in the form. – Amasa

Answer 4

You could try:

MyTextBox.Select();

According to the documentation:

The Select method activates the control if the control's Selectable style bit is set to true in ControlStyles, it is contained in another control, and all its parent controls are both visible and enabled.

You can first check if the control can be selectable by inspecting the MyTextBox.CanSelect property.

Mcbryde

Answer 5

If you only want to set the focus the first time the form is shown, try handling the Form.Shown event and doing it there. Otherwise use Control.VisibleChanged.

Smail

Answer 6

The reason you can't get it to work is because the Load event is called before the form is drawn or rendered.

It like telling a pizza place how to make your pizza, and then asking them to send you a picture of how much pepperoni is on your pizza before they made it.

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace Testing
{
    public partial class TestForm : Form
    {
        public TestForm()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            Load += TestForm_Load;

            VisibleChanged += TestForm_VisibleChanged;

            Shown += TestForm_Shown;

            Show();

        }

        private void TestForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("This event is called before the form is rendered.");
        }

        private void TestForm_VisibleChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("This event is called before the form is rendered.");
        }

        private void TestForm_Shown(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("This event is called after the form is rendered.");
            txtFirstName.Focus();
        }
    }
}

Traduce

Answer 7

Textbox.Focus() "Tries" to set focus on the textbox element. In case of the element visibility is hidden for example, Focus() will not work. So make sure that your element is visible before calling Focus().

Bethink

Answer 8

I solved my problem with changing "TabIndex" property of TextBox. I set 0 for TextBox that I want to focus it on Form when the program start.

Lilywhite

Answer 9

use form shown event and set

MyTextBox.Focus();

Morgue

Not work when a form loads. – Druggist

Answer 10

Set Tab Index property's value = 0 and then in form load function write :

YourTextboxName.Focus();

It will work.

Proviso

Answer 11

Finally i found the problem i was using metro framework and all your solutions will not work with metroTextBox, and all your solutions will work with normal textBox in load , show , visibility_change ,events, even the tab index = 0 is valid.

   // private void Form1_VisibleChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
   // private void Form1__Shown(object sender, EventArgs e)
    private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {

        textBox1.Select();
        this.ActiveControl=textBox1;
        textBox1.Focus();
    }

Mandeville

Answer 12

You can use either textBox1.select(); or the TabIndex in textbox setting. TabIndex=0 focoused first.

Acreage

If we call textBox1.select(); in form load event handler, it sets the focus in the textBox1. – Rhines

I had TabIndex = 0 for the first textBox on my dialog, but it didn't work. I found out that this was due to the fact that the first 3 textBoxes we placed on a groupBox. So the TabIndex values for those textBoxes within the groupBox were not even being considered by the dialog, and the first control visible to the dialog was an enabled control outside the groupBox with the lowest TabIndex value. So watch out for that... – Jezabelle

Answer 13

Set Tabstop to True and TabIndex to the minimum to the control on which you need focus.

e.g. If you have 2 TextBoxes : TextBox1 and TextBox2, set Tabstop to True for both and TabIndex to 0 and 1 respectively. When the form loads, the focus will be on TextBox1 and on the press of 'Tab' key, the focus will move to TextBox2.

Sudatory

Answer 14

it's worked for me set tabindex to 0 this.yourtextbox.TabIndex = 0;

Abbatial

Answer 15

on your form, go to properties and make sure that "TopMost" property is set to true, that will solve your problem.

Nevil

Answer 16

This is one simple way to put the textbox into focus when loading a C# form. It's similar to the above, but with a bit less coding. I can't recall where I first found the solution, but I've used it for a few years, and credits go to them.

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        this.ActiveControl = txt_PrtrIP;
        txt_PrtrIP.Focus();
    }

Poler

Answer 17

In jquery set focus

$(function() {
  $("#txtBox1").focus();
});

or in Javascript you can do

window.onload = function() {
  document.getElementById("txtBox1").focus();
};

Boong

This might be a good answer for a web site question, but this one is tagged c# and winforms. – Jacobus