User Guide

ComboBox component 177
When the drop-down list of a combo box has focus, alphanumeric keystrokes move the selection
up and down the drop-down list to the next item with the same first character. You can also use
the following keys to control a drop-down list:
Note: The page size used by the Page Up and Page Down keys is one less than the number of items
that fit in the display. For example, paging down through a ten-line drop-down list will show items 0-
9, 9-18, 18-27, and so on, with one item overlapping per page.
For more information about controlling focus, see “Creating custom focus navigation
on page 50 or “FocusManager class” on page 419.
A live preview of each ComboBox component instance on the Stage reflects changes made to
parameters in the Property inspector or Component inspector during authoring. However, the
drop-down list does not open in the live preview, and the first item displays as the selected item.
When you add the ComboBox component to an application, you can use the Accessibility
panel to make it accessible to screen readers. First, you must add the following line of code to
enable accessibility:
mx.accessibility.ComboBoxAccImpl.enableAccessibility();
You enable accessibility for a component only once, regardless of how many instances you have of
the component. For more information, see Chapter 17, “Creating Accessible Content,” in Using
Flash.
Key Description
Control+Up
Arrow
If the drop-down list is open, focus returns to the text box and the drop-down list
closes in the stand-alone and browser versions of Flash Player.
Down Arrow Moves the selection down one item.
End Moves the insertion point to the end of the text box.
Enter If the drop-down list is open, focus returns to the text box and the drop-down list
closes.
Escape If the drop-down list is open, focus returns to the text box and the drop-down list
closes in Test Movie mode.
Home Moves the insertion point to the beginning of the text box.
Page Down Moves the selection down one page.
Page Up Moves the selection up one page.
Tab Moves focus to the next object.
Shift+End Selects the text from the insertion point to the End position.
Shift+Home Selects the text from the insertion point to the Home position.
Shift+Tab Moves focus to the previous object.
Up Arrow Moves the selection up one item.