agreed! Im just not sure it was the date picker so I have to get with jim before I lodge a ticket. Thanks for the help my friend.
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Hi: my solution to many IDE problems.
Save the project to .xojo_code
Edit the âŠxojocode with a text editor
Doing this I got all the tab orders correct, also all the parent-child control relationships, also all the tricky alignments and z-orders for deliberately overlapping controls. This was for a window with about 100 controls.
It was easy to do, easy to test, easy to adjust.
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That is brilliant and sad all at the same time! I never would have though of that but I love it! Thanks Mike!
Yes, I agree, a great solution and something I donât usually think about as I donât normally hack on my Xojo source files in a text editor.
What do you need to change?
For example this sample: Container Sample
The first thing to do is take the linked example, open in Xojo and then save as a âXojo Projectâ which will then be text.
Next, although I believe @Mike_Linacre1 said the .xojo_code file, in this particular case I think youâll want the Container1.xojo_window and the Window1.xojo_window files. Open these in your favorite text editor.
Then find the control youâre looking for and the TabIndex propertyâŠ
You can then manually change the value and number things appropriately.
In looking at the example you brought up though, Iâm not seeing any TabIndex values that donât align to the IDE nor do I see anything that would cause the actual UI issue when tabbing through the interface in the (compiled) project.
@Mike_Linacre1 Would you mind taking a look at the linked project and see if you can find whatâs borked? Or maybe I misconstrued what needs to be done to the file(s) in a text editor? Maybe itâs not the TabIndex property but instead something else?
On a semi-related note, in case it helps others, my best guess is that this issue is mostly (solely?) seen in layered controls. I very often use container controls for management, groups boxes and sometimes even rectangles in order to visually âclusterâ controls together for visual differentiation. Of course behind the scenes within Xojoâs own code, Iâm sure this can get complicated quickly and thereâs likely some edge cases and bugs that are there as a result. Iâm mentioning this because Iâd guess, but I might be wrong, that these kinds of tabbing issues go away if you have a âflatâ interface design (e.g. all controls directly on a window with no layering and no container controls).
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Yes, thank you. I did that but I didnât see any (obvious) errors from the linked file for TabIndex, so I was not able to âmake it workâ. Maybe that example canât be fixed (maybe?) or there are other things to check on the text file that I donât know.
@Patrick_Salo this is quite nice of you to do. I imagine this will help others who have this problem. Mine was entirely flat, all controls on a window wit no other tab/page panels or other complications
This is great to know and thanks for the clarification. Guess my hunch was off or I was overly hopeful that this problem wasnât as bad as it is. 
I have always had bad luck with the tab order system. Itâs particularly a pain if you add a control to an existing window and want it to be inserted in the middle of other controls, focus-wise. I have instead, with some help from the forum a while back, use the âClearFocusâ and âReadOnlyâ commands together with the SetFocus command to get the controls active when I want them. Itâs probably a lot of extra code but in the end I know whatâs going to happen and in what order.
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