I have 2 buttons next to a textbox and another textbox after the 2 buttons. The tabindex for the first textbox is 1000, the first button is 1001 and the second button is 1002. The second textbox has a tabindex of 1003.
When I press tab, the tabindex works fine in all browsers except for Safari, where it immediately moves from the first textbox to the second textbox although the tabindex has been set properly. Any ideas on how to prevent this issue?
By default tab-access is disabled in safari(!). To enable it, check "Preferences > Advanced > Press tab to highlight each item on a page".
I tried the following with Safari 5.1.5. I don't know how it works with older versions:
When "highlighting each item on a page" (see answer by graphicdivine) is disabled, you can use that function by pressing Option(alt) + tab.
If you don't (and the option is disabled), Safari will by default tab through all form-fields (like input, textarea, select...). For this fields, it will also accept/regard a tabindex. It will first tab through all form elements with a tabindex (in the order of the given indices) and then through the rest of the form elements in the order of their definition in HTML.
So if you define a tabindex="1" (or 1001) and "3" (or 1003) for two input-elements Safari will first focus this fields and then the others.