Tabindex test page
Status of this document
This page is meant to test how tabindex works on various platforms. It was
written by Charles McCathieNevile mailto:charles@w3.org - because I was wondering
about it, but I am likely to use the results as input to W3C
working groups, especially WAI groups.
If you test it, please send any results to charles@w3.org including: what browser you
used, what operating system you were using, and the version of browser and
operating system. I will try to gather them into this page.
Last modified on $Date: 2000/01/17 13:22:46 $ by $Author: charles $
How it works:
There are a number of links on the page. The first is to the W3C, the next
three are to charles, and the rest are numbered, for example "link five". Some of the links have a tabindex attribute, and
in that case they will also say what that is, for example "link six - tabindex 1". All the numbered links are to the top
of the page. I am curious about what order you get to the links in - whether
tabindex works at all in your browser, and if it does, do you tab to link six
and then get to "link seven", which has no tabindex, or do
you go to "link eight - tabindex 2". If you
got to link eight, does the next "tab" take you to "link
nine", because there are no more links with a tabindex, or does it take
you to the top? And the last link is "link ten" because
that seemed like a nice number of links (at least for now).
Results:
Summary:
Internet Explorer 4.0 and 5.0 running under Windows select the links which
have a tabindex sequentially (in the order of their tabindex) and then begin
from the top selecting the rest of the links. Netscape under Windows, up to
version 4.7, Opera 3.51, and Lynx under Linux seem to ignore the tabindex.
Internet Explorer and Netscape on the Macintosh, and Netscape under Linux, do
not seem to enable tabbing between links.
Details:
(Many thanks to Ricardo Sanchez, and Emmanuelle Gutiérrez y Restrepo for
their results. Any errors in collating are the author's.)
Internet Explorer 4.0, under Windows 95 and Windows 98
- It selects the url of the visited page in the location window
- It selects the first item in the link bar of the browser
- It selects Tabindex 1 link six
- It selects Tabindex 2 link eight
- It selects the logo and the next dash as a element (*)
- It selects Charles McCathieNevile
- It selects the first charles@w3.org
- It selects the second charles@w3.org
- It selects link five
- It selects link seven
- It selects link nine
- It selects link ten
- It selects the url of the visited page in the location window
Note: With the combination of Keys SHIFT + TAB, it follows the same order
in the other direction
Internet Explorer 5.0 under Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0
- It selects the url of the visited page in the location window
- It selects Tabindex 1 link six
- It selects Tabindex 2 link eight
- It selects the logo and the next dash as a element (*)
- It selects Charles McCathieNevile
- It selects the first charles@w3.org
- It selects the second charles@w3.org
- It selects link five
- It selects link seven
- It selects link nine
- It selects link ten
- It selects the url of the visited page in the location window
Note: With the combination of Keys SHIFT + TAB, it follows the same order
on the other direction
Nestcape Navigator 4.7 under Windows 98, Netscape Navigator 4.5 under
Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0
- It selects the url of the visited page in the location window
- It selects the logo
- It selects the dash which appears between the logo W3C and the header as
different element
- It selects Charles McCathieNevile
- It selects the first charles@w3.org
- It selects the second charles@w3.org
- It selects link five
- It selects Tabindex 1 link six
- It selects link seven
- It selects Tabindex 2 link eight
- It selects link nine
- It selects link ten
- It selects the url of the visited page in the location window
Note: With the combination of Keys SHIFT + TAB, it follows the same order
in the other direction.
Opera 3.51 under Windows 98
- It selects the logo and the next dash as a element
- It selects Charles McCathieNevile
- It selects the first charles@w3.org
- It selects the second charles@w3.org
- It selects link five
- It selects Tabindex 1 link six
- It selects link seven
- It selects Tabindex 2 link eight
- It selects link nine
- It selects link ten
- It selects the logo and the next dash as a element
Lynx 2.8.1 under Linux 2.2 (RedHat 6.0)
- It selects W3C (the logo alt)
- It selects Charles McCathieNevile
- It selects the first charles@w3.org
- It selects the second charles@w3.org
- It selects link five
- It selects Tabindex 1 link six
- It selects link seven
- It selects Tabindex 2 link eight
- It selects link nine
- It selects link ten
- It selects W3C (the logo alt)
Internet Explorer 4.5 and 3.01 under MacOS 8.0, Netscape Navigator 4.07,
3.01 under MacOS 8.0, Netscape Navigator 4.6 under MacOS 8.6, Netscape
Navigator 4.04 under MacOS 8.0 and 7.5.3
- It selects the url of the visited page in the location window
- It focuses the contents window without selecting any element
- It selects the url of the visited page in the location window
Netscape Navigator 4.51 under Linux 2.2 (RedHat 6.0), Netscape Navigator
2.02 under MacOS 8.0
The TAB key does nothing