HTMLElement: focus() method
The HTMLElement.focus()
method sets focus on the specified element, if it can be focused.
The focused element is the element that will receive keyboard and similar events by default.
By default the browser will scroll the element into view after focusing it, and it may also provide visible indication of the focused element (typically by displaying a "focus ring" around the element). Parameter options are provided to disable the default scrolling and force visible indication on elements.
Syntax
js
focus()
focus(options)
Parameters
options
Optional-
An optional object for controlling aspects of the focusing process. This object may contain the following properties:
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. focusVisible
Optional Experimental-
A boolean value that should be set to
true
to force visible indication that the element is focused. By default, or if the property is nottrue
, a browser may still provide visible indication if it determines that this would improve accessibility for users.
Return value
None (undefined
).
Examples
Focus on a text field
This example uses a button to set the focus on a text field.
HTML
html
<input id="myTextField" value="Text field." />
<button id="focusButton">Click to set focus on the text field</button>
JavaScript
The code below adds an event handler to set the focus on the text field when the button is pressed.
Note that most browsers will automatically add visible indication (a "focus ring") for a focused text field, so the code does not set focusVisible
to true
.
js
document.getElementById("focusButton").addEventListener("click", () => {
document.getElementById("myTextField").focus();
});
Result
Select the button to set focus on the text field.
Focus on a button
This example demonstrates how you can set the focus on a button element.
HTML
First we define three buttons.
Both the middle and right button will set focus on the left-most button.
The right right-most button will also specify focusVisible
.
html
<button id="myButton">Button</button>
<button id="focusButton">Click to set focus on "Button"</button>
<button id="focusButtonVisibleIndication">
Click to set focus and focusVisible on "Button"
</button>
JavaScript
The code below sets up handlers for click events on the middle and right buttons.
js
document.getElementById("focusButton").addEventListener("click", () => {
document.getElementById("myButton").focus();
});
document
.getElementById("focusButtonVisibleIndication")
.addEventListener("click", () => {
document.getElementById("myButton").focus({ focusVisible: true });
});
Result
Select either the middle button or right-most button to set focus on the left-most button.
Browsers do not usually show visible focus indication on button elements when focus is set programmatically, so the effect of selecting the middle button may not be obvious.
However provided the focusVisible
option is supported on your browser, you should see focus changing on the left-most button when the right-most button is selected.
Focus with and without scrolling
This example shows the effect of setting focus with the option preventScroll
set true
and false
(the default).
HTML
The HTML defines two buttons that will be used to set the focus of a third button that is off-screen
html
<button id="focus_scroll">Click to set focus on off-screen button</button>
<button id="focus_no_scroll">
Click to set focus on offscreen button without scrolling
</button>
<div id="container">
<button id="myButton" style="margin-top: 500px;">Button</button>
</div>
JavaScript
This code sets a click event handler on the first and second buttons to set the focus on the last button.
Note that the first handler doesn't specify the preventScroll
option so scrolling to the focused element will be enabled.
js
document.getElementById("focus_scroll").addEventListener("click", () => {
document.getElementById("myButton").focus(); // default: {preventScroll:false}
});
document.getElementById("focus_no_scroll").addEventListener("click", () => {
document.getElementById("myButton").focus({ preventScroll: true });
});
Result
Select the first button to set focus and scroll to the off-screen button. Selecting the second button set's the focus, but scrolling is disabled.
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 updated in October 2019. See the WHATWG blog for more information.
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.