Windows Tip: the default button and focus and how to use them

March 25, 11:37 PMUsing Computers ExaminerHarold Nolte

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Window showing default button and focus

This article tells you about two features of many Windows programs – the “default button” and the “focus.”  Before we cover these two features, let me define controls. 

Controls
Computer programs have many ways for users to interface with them.  There are buttons, radio buttons, checkboxes and lists to name a few.  These are called controls.  You as a user change these controls to tell the program what you want. 

This image shows many controls in a window.  These are examples of some of the controls available. 

Now let’s look at our two features, default buttons and the focus. 

Default button
Programs and web pages often have buttons you can click on.  For example, it is very common for windows to have OK and Cancel buttons at the bottom of the window. 

If one of the buttons has a darker border around it, or it has a blue outline around it, that button is the default button.  The image above has a blue border around the OK button. 

This is called the “default button.”  When you see a window that has a default button, you can hit the ENTER key on the keyboard instead.  Hitting ENTER has the same effect as clicking the default button.  This was designed to allow you to “take the default action” quickly by simply hitting ENTER. 

The focus
You will often see one of two things in a window:

1. A dotted line around one of the controls. 
2. One of the controls is highlighted with a blue background. 

This is called the focus.  In the image above you will notice the “collate” checkbox (on the right side of the window) has the dotted line around it.  This means that the focus is on the collate checkbox. 

In this example, hitting the SPACEBAR will either check or uncheck (toggle) the collate checkbox.  SPACEBAR will do different things to different controls.  Hitting SPACEBAR when the focus is on a button has the same effect as clicking the button. 

Hitting the TAB key will move the focus to the next control.  Hitting SHIFT+TAB will move the focus to the previous control. 

To learn how the default button and the focus work open a window with some controls in it and TAB around the controls, trying each one.  After trying the controls in a window, you can cancel the window so you don’t make any unwanted changes. 

You will often see windows with either two buttons – OK and Cancel – or an OK button by itself.  In this case the focus is usually on the OK button.  If you want to click OK just tap SPACEBAR and you are done.  If you want to Cancel a window with two buttons, hit TAB then SPACEBAR.  This is quite often faster than using the mouse. 

This article explains default buttons and focus in Windows programs.  Understanding these features will help you navigate programs easier and faster. 

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