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Tab Control (MSAA UI Element Reference)

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Note

This topic describes Tab Control objects for purposes of MSAA UI Element Reference. How to create Tab Control objects in various UI frameworks is not described here. See the API reference documentation for the UI framework you're using.

A tab control defines multiple pages for the same area of a window or dialog box. Each page consists of a set of information or a group of controls that an application displays when the user selects the corresponding tab. The Windows operating system uses tab controls to display the taskbar buttons, with the exception of the Start button.

The window class name for a tab control is WC_TABCONTROL, which is defined as "SysTabControl" in Commctrl.h.

IAccessible Methods

A tab control supports the following IAccessible methods:

Method Comments
accDoDefaultAction The accDoDefaultAction method clicks the page tab.
accHitTest
accLocation
accNavigate
accSelect

IAccessible Properties

A tab control supports the following IAccessible properties:

Property Comments
get_accChild
get_accChildCount
get_accDefaultAction The DefaultAction property is "Switch".
get_accDescription
get_accFocus
get_accHelp
get_accHelpTopic
get_accKeyboardShortcut The KeyboardShortcut property is the tab control's access key, which is an underlined character in the control's window text. This string contains the access key character appended to the string "Alt+".
get_accName The Name property is obtained from the control's window text (or caption), which is displayed within the tab control.
get_accParent The Parent property is a window ( ROLE_SYSTEM_PAGETABLIST ) that surrounds the control and has the same window class name as the control.
get_accRole The Role property is ROLE_SYSTEM_PAGETAB.
get_accSelection
get_accState The State property is a combination of one or more of the following values: STATE_SYSTEM_INVISIBLE | STATE_SYSTEM_SELECTABLE | STATE_SYSTEM_SELECTED | STATE_SYSTEM_FOCUSABLE | STATE_SYSTEM_FOCUSED | STATE_SYSTEM_PRESSED

Notes

Tab controls incorrectly return S_OK from the accSelect method when called with the SELFLAG_TAKEFOCUS flag. Tab controls cannot take the keyboard focus.

IAccessible Interface