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This is my first post and I've tried looking for a solution but to no avail.

I'm trying to move the mouse pointer with the press of the tab button. ie. tab selects the next selectable field and I want my mouse to be on that selectable field so the mouse moves around the page by hitting tab.

Otherwise, a way of getting the selected items co-ordinates and assigning the same to the mouse.

-Update of info left out-

My program opens another program and I'm not sure how to reference the selected items on that program which is where the problem occurs.

Thanks.

Brian Rogers
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Colin
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    My two cents would be to 1. [Get which object has focus (where the tab is pointing)](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7625361/get-the-name-of-the-focused-element-in-c-sharp), then move the mouse cursor. 2. Here's a [helpful question for moving mouse cursor to a specific location](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8050825/how-to-move-mouse-cursor-using-c). I assume you want to move the mouse to center of control, so get it's x/y position and add half the width/height to set the mouse x,y position exactly over the center of the control. – Bennett Yeo Mar 05 '16 at 22:16
  • Thanks for the reply, I read that thread already. My program opens another program and I'm not sure how to reference the selected items on that program, I'm quite a novice at programming but hoping I can find a solution. – Colin Mar 05 '16 at 22:27
  • Since you are opening one form from another you can make a reference to that form. `Form other;` (somewhere in code `other = new Form().Show()`), now you can find the active (focused) control using the `other.ActiveControl` method mentioned above. – Bennett Yeo Mar 05 '16 at 22:31

1 Answers1

3

Adding this event handler to your form:

private void control_Enter(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (sender is Control)
    {
        var control = (Control)sender;
        Cursor.Position = control.PointToScreen(new Point()
        {
            X = control.Width / 2,
            Y = control.Height / 2
        });
    }
}

you can then subscribe the multiple controls to it that you require to have the cursor "move" to the center of those controls, for example:

button1.Enter += control_Enter;

or alternatively you can assign with the property grid in the designer.

This approach has one caveat, that is if the user clicks on the control with the mouse, the cursor is also centered. This may or may not be desirable behavior for you, depending on your application.

Update based on new requirements for question:

Since you may not have access to modify the source code of the form in question, you can pass a reference to the form you are displaying to a function:

void SubscribeControlsOnEnter(Form form)
{
    foreach (Control control in form.Controls)
    {
        control.Enter += control_Enter;
    }
}

or similar, which can iterate through contained controls on your form. If your form has controls nested in containers, you will need to use recursion but should still be possible using this pattern.

For a nested approach, your function to subscribe to controls might look something like this (remember, Form derives from Control):

void SubscribeNestedControlsOnEnter(Control container)
{
    foreach (Control control in container.Controls)
    {
        if (control.Controls.Count > 0)
        {
            SubscribeNestedControlsOnEnter(control);
        }
        else control.Enter += control_Enter;
    }
}

such that when displaying your form, you might invoke in the following manner:

Form1 form = new Form1();
SubscribeNestedControlsOnEnter(form);
form.Show();
Lemonseed
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    In a real world implementation I'll move the cursor only if the cursor is not above the control, to prevent annoying mouse movement when you select a control by click. Nice answer :) – Reza Aghaei Mar 06 '16 at 19:39