Field loses focus?

[Alan Smith]

Hi,

what does it mean when talking about input fields, that the field can lose focus? I have seen that a few times but I am reading a java book now and it mentions it but never explains it.

Thanks,
Alan

[Jesper de Jong]

In a GUI, normally one of the GUI elements (text boxes, buttons, etc.) has the focus, which means that if you type, the text appears in the text box that has the focus, or when you press space, the button that has the focus is clicked.

When the focus goes from one GUI element to another, for example because you press the Tab key, then the element that previously had the focus loses it, and it goes to the next GUI element.

[Alan Smith]

Ok, thanks. So basically the "active" element i.e. the button that has that square border thing in it when you are tabbing between buttons or the text field that has the blinking cursor.