How to focus an HTML checkbox in IE, causing it to gain highlight

Answer 1

What you might be seeing are different browser implementations of how a checkbox is highlighted when it has focus.

Which particular browser were you referring to?

In FireFox, a highlighted checkbox has a slight orange border with a very faint dashed line.

IE6 seems to give no indication when a checkbox has focus, only when you hover over it do you get a visual cue that it is checkable (slight orange border).

Answer 2

I don't have IE7 but try this... (works in IE6 running with Wine)

<script type="text/javascript">
    function doIt(){
        document.getElementById("theButton").blur();
        document.getElementById("theCheckbox").focus();
    }
</script>

<input type="button" id="theButton" onClick="doIt()" value="Push Me">
<br/>
<input type="checkbox" id="theCheckbox">

Answer 3

I tried to duplicate this error and I was able to, but I also noticed something else.

If I first tab-selected any element on the page (i.e., not necessarily the checkbox) and then clicked the button, the focus highlight worked as expected.

This really makes me believe that this is a browser issue you probably can't get around.