Question

I would like to allow literal TAB (\t) characters in my textarea’s. However, the TAB key cycles to the next form element. Since this is expected I don’t want to break that standard. Likewise, CTRL + TAB cycles browser tabs. Is there a recomended key-combo to allow people to enter an actual TAB inside a textarea?

For example, CTRL + SPACE doesn’t seem to do anything, could that be used?

Also, how would I listen for these combos correctly?

Answer 1

This is the code I use on textareas to keep the TAB from switching focus:

$("textarea").keydown(function(e) {
  var $this, end, start;
  if (e.keyCode === 9) {
    start = this.selectionStart;
    end = this.selectionEnd;
    $this = $(this);
    $this.val($this.val().substring(0, start) + "\t" + $this.val().substring(end));
    this.selectionStart = this.selectionEnd = start + 1;
    return false;
  }
});