HTMLElement.focus()
The HTMLElement.focus()
method
sets focus on the specified element, if it can be focused. The focused element is
the element which will receive keyboard and similar events by default.
Syntax
element.focus(options);
Parameters
options
Optional-
An optional object providing options to control aspects of the focusing process. This object may contain the following property:
preventScroll
Optional-
A Boolean value indicating whether or not the browser should scroll the document to bring the newly-focused element into view. A value of
false
forpreventScroll
(the default) means that the browser will scroll the element into view after focusing it. IfpreventScroll
is set totrue
, no scrolling will occur.
Examples
Focus on a text field
JavaScript
focusMethod = function getFocus() {
document.getElementById("myTextField").focus();
}
HTML
<input type="text" id="myTextField" value="Text field.">
<p></p>
<button type="button" onclick="focusMethod()">Click me to focus on the text field!</button>
Result
Focus on a button
JavaScript
focusMethod = function getFocus() {
document.getElementById("myButton").focus();
}
HTML
<button type="button" id="myButton">Click Me!</button>
<p></p>
<button type="button" onclick="focusMethod()">Click me to focus on the button!</button>
Result
Focus with focusOption
JavaScript
focusScrollMethod = function getFocus() {
document.getElementById("myButton").focus({preventScroll:false});
}
focusNoScrollMethod = function getFocusWithoutScrolling() {
document.getElementById("myButton").focus({preventScroll:true});
}
HTML
<button type="button" onclick="focusScrollMethod()">Click me to focus on the button!</button>
<button type="button" onclick="focusNoScrollMethod()">Click me to focus on the button without scrolling!</button>
<div id="container" style="height: 1000px; width: 1000px;">
<button type="button" id="myButton" style="margin-top: 500px;">Click Me!</button>
</div>
Result
Specifications
Specification |
---|
HTML Standard # dom-focus-dev |
Notes
-
If you call
HTMLElement.focus()
from a mousedown event handler, you must callevent.preventDefault()
to keep the focus from leaving theHTMLElement
-
Behavior of the focus in relation to different HTML features like
tabindex
or shadow dom, which previously remained under-specified, were recently updated (as October of 2019). Checkout WHATWG blog for more info.
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser
See also
HTMLElement.blur
to remove the focus from an element.document.activeElement
to know which is the currently focused element.focusin
event: fired when an element is about to gain focus.focusout
event: fired when an element is about to lose focus.