Keyboard navigation in WPF grid using arrow keys

Question

I have a grid which contains a number of textboxes. I want to move from one text box to other using up/down/left/right keys. I have tried setting KeyBoardNavigation.DirectionNavigation property on the grid but it doesn't work. However the Tab navigation is working fine. Any suggestion please.

Seems mad to take away the right and left arrow key function from a text box. The user will now have to use the mouse to position the cursor? — James Harcourt, Jun 07 '15 at 16:18
Yes they have to use mouse for that. The functionality will be similar to excel. Any idea how to implement it?? — indra, Jun 07 '15 at 16:39

James Harcourt · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-07T16:43:50.850

As I said in my comment: this is a strange thing to want to do - however, I think the easiest way is to make yourself a special jumpy textbox which overrides the preview keydown event to action the focus change.

public class JumpyTextBox : TextBox
{
    protected override void OnPreviewKeyDown(KeyEventArgs e)
    {
        base.OnPreviewKeyDown(e);

        if (e.Key == Key.Up || e.Key == Key.Down)
            MoveFocus(new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.Previous));

        if (e.Key == Key.Down || e.Key == Key.Right)
            MoveFocus(new TraversalRequest(FocusNavigationDirection.Next));
    }
}

The XAML then works like a normal textbox:

<local:JumpyTextBox Grid.Column="0" Text="field 1" />
<local:JumpyTextBox Grid.Column="1" Text="field 2" />

You can then contain the tab navigation inside your grid with the 'special' textboxes:

<Grid KeyboardNavigation.TabNavigation="Cycle">

Keyboard navigation in WPF grid using arrow keys

1 Answers1