Tabbing navigation should not be confused with tabbed document interface
In computing, tabbing navigation is the ability to navigate between focusable elements (such as hyperlinks and form controls) within a structured document or user interface (such as HTML) with the tab key of a computer keyboard. Usually, pressing Tab will focus on the next element, while pressing Shift + Tab will focus on the previous element. The order of focusing can be determined implicitly (based on physical order) or explicitly (based on tab index). In general, tabbing is cyclical, not linear, meaning that the tabbing will cycle to the first/last element when it moves away from the last/first element.
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On web pages, by default tabbing navigates through form fields (such as text entry) and anchors (such as links) in the order they appear in the character stream (i.e., in the raw HTML). This can be overridden by the page author using the tabindex attribute, or by disabling a form field.
At the client end, Mac OS X defaults to only focusing text boxes and lists, but this setting can be overridden to allow navigation to all entries (see references). Mozilla Firefox can similarly be customized to include or exclude navigation to text areas, other form elements, and anchors.
Most desktop applications and web browsers support this kind of keyboard navigation. But in some web browsers like Opera, an alternative method known as spatial navigation is used. This method, in many cases, can save a lots of key presses. In addition, Mozilla Application Suite and Mozilla Firefox support caret navigation, which provides a more natural way of document navigation similar to mouse navigation.
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