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Set Focus to First Available Form Control

Sometimes it is necessary to set the focus to the first available form control. The problem is that complex web pages can contain multiple forms and each form individually can contain hidden or disabled elements and controls that cannot accept focus.

The code below iterates through all forms skipping hidden and disabled elements and stops when it finds the first available form control:

function SetToFirstControl()
{
  var bFound = false; 

  //for each form
  for (f=0; f < document.forms.length; f++) 
  {
    //for each element in each form
    for(i=0; i < document.forms[f].length; i++)
    {
      //if it's not a hidden element
      if (document.forms[f][i].type != "hidden") 
      { 
        //and it's not disabled
        if (document.forms[f][i].disabled != true) 
        {
          try {
             //set the focus to it
             document.forms[f][i].focus();
             var bFound = true;
          }
          catch(er) {
          }
        }
      }
      //if found in this element, stop looking
      if (bFound == true)
        break;
    }
    //if found in this form, stop looking
    if (bFound == true)
      break;
  }
}


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