Flash CS3 Documentation

ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference > ActionScript classes > MovieClip > tabChildren (MovieClip.tabChildren property)

tabChildren (MovieClip.tabChildren property)

Determines whether the children of a movie clip are included in the automatic tab ordering. If the tabChildren property is undefined or true, the children of a movie clip are included in automatic tab ordering. If the value of tabChildren is false, the children of a movie clip are not included in automatic tab ordering. The default value is undefined.

Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Player 6

Example

A list box user interface widget that is built as a movie clip contains several items. The user can click each item to select it, so each item is implemented as a button. However, only the list box itself should be a tab stop. The items inside the list box should be excluded from tab ordering. To do this, you set the tabChildren property of the list box to false.

The tabChildren property has no effect if the tabIndex property is used; the tabChildren property affects only automatic tab ordering.

The following example disables tabbing for all child movie clips inside a parent movie clip called menu_mc:

menu_mc.onRelease = function(){};
menu_mc.menu1_mc.onRelease = function(){};
menu_mc.menu2_mc.onRelease = function(){};
menu_mc.menu3_mc.onRelease = function(){};
menu_mc.menu4_mc.onRelease = function(){};

menu_mc.tabChildren = false;

Change the last line of code to the following to include the child movie clip instances of menu_mc in the automatic tab ordering:

menu_mc.tabChildren = true;

See also

tabIndex (Button.tabIndex property), tabEnabled (MovieClip.tabEnabled property), tabIndex (MovieClip.tabIndex property), tabIndex (TextField.tabIndex property)

Flash CS3