Question

I have some textboxes where I would like focus to behave a little differently than normal for a WPF application. Basically, I would like them to behave more like a textbox behaves on a webpage. That is, if I click anywhere outside of the textbox, it will lose its focus. What is the best way to do so?

If the answer is to programmatically remove focus, what is the best way to detect a Mouseclick outside of the bounds? What if the element I’m clicking on will be the new recipient of focus?

Answer 1

Rather than adding new control to window, I think you should give your Grid a name and react to the MouseDown event on your window, moving the focus to the Grid itself. Something like this:

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.Window1"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" 
    Title="Window1" 
    Height="412" Width="569" 
    MouseDown="Window_MouseDown" 
    Name="window1">

    <Grid ShowGridLines="False" 
          Background="#01FFFFFF"
          KeyDown="Grid_KeyDown" 
          Name="grid1" 
          Focusable="True">

          <TextBox Width="120" Margin="117,61,0,0" 
                   Name="textBox1" 
                   VerticalAlignment="Top" 
                   HorizontalAlignment="Left"/>
    </Grid>
</Window>

code behind:

private void window1_MouseDown(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
    grid1.Focus();
}