How to navigate between controls on form using Enter Key instead of Tab key

In my situation I wanted the enter key to function exactly like the tab key so I invented this event:

private void WriteEnglish_KeyPress(object sender, KeyPressEventArgs e)
       {
           if (e.KeyChar == "\r"))
           {
               SendKeys.Send("\t");
           }
       }

Then I depend on the TabOrder to control where focus goes next. It works great for me.

That's a non-standard interface. The whole point of Windows is to provide a common interface for all applications.

The only way you could accomplish this is by eating the tab event, and handling the enter key event by manually determining which control to move to by examining the tab order of all controls and moving to the next control in the tab order that is set as a tab stop.

Again, this is extremely odd behavior for a Windows app, and you should expect users to report it as a bug, or at the very least, annoying as hell.

if you are working on windows form then you can use ProcessCmdKey and if you are using web form then you have to write custom function in javascript.
here is code for window form

protected override bool ProcessCmdKey(ref Message msg, Keys keyData)
   {
       if ((msg.WParam.ToInt32() == 13))
       {
           SendKeys.Send("{Tab}");
           return true;
       }
       return base.ProcessCmdKey(ref msg, keyData);
   }

hope this will help you.

Hi Yatin,

In response to your comment on my previous answer, I am not aware of any property that will do this.

The only way that I know is to iterate over the controls collection of the Form and if the control is the type that requires this functionality, add your handler to its KeyPress or KeyDown event. Something like this:

void frm1_Load(....)
{
    IterateThroughChildren(this);
}

void IterateThroughChildren(Control parent)
{
  foreach (Control c in parent.Controls)
  {
    if (c is TextBox || c is ComboBox) <============ See below
    {
        c.KeyDown += MyKeyDownHandler;
    }
    if (c.Controls.Count > 0)
    {
      IterateThroughChildren(c);
    }
  }
}

void MyKeyDownHandler(....)
{
    if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
    {
        ((Control)sender).SelectNextControl(....);
    }
}

The test for TextBox or ComboBox is there to avoid the event handler being applied to things like Panels
devise your own test to suit your circumstances.

One other thing to consider is what to do with Controls that might expect the enter key (Multi-line TextBoxes or ListBoxes for example). These will have to be handled differently, maybe test for Ctrl-Enter for those.

Good luck! :)

Hello,
paste this code in your keyupevent of textbox and hit enter on pressing enter combobox will have the focus :

private void textBox1_KeyUp(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
        {
//condition is that if enter key is pressed then 
            if (e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
            {
//combobox will have the focus
                comboBox1.Focus();
            }
        }

and this code u have to paste it in ur entire forms controls key up event

Do rate my answer once you find it useful

Thanks & Regards
Radix :)