Clicking on a Label to focus another control in WPF

Question

I have taken a break from WPF for about a year and I am stumped by this simple problem. I swear there was an easy way to tell a label to focus to another control when it is clicked.

 <StackPanel>
    <Label Target="TextBox1">Label Text</Label>
    <TextBox Name="TextBox1" />
</StackPanel>

When the user clicks on "Label Text" I want the TextBox to receive focus. Is this possible?

Answer 1

You should make use of the Target property:

<Label Content="_Stuff:" Target="{x:Reference TextBox1}"
       MouseLeftButtonUp="Label_MouseLeftButtonUp"/>
<TextBox Name="TextBox1" />

private void Label_MouseLeftButtonUp(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.ClickCount == 1) //Note that this is a lie, this does not check for a "real" click
    {
        var label = (Label)sender;
        Keyboard.Focus(label.Target);
    }
}

The whole point of using a Label in the first place instead of a TextBlock is to make use of its associative functionality, see the reference on MSDN .

About my note, i asked a question about how to get a real click over here , if you are curious.

Answer 2

I found the code I used to use for this and figured I would share it in case it is useful for anyone else.

public class LabelEx : Label
{
    protected override void OnMouseLeftButtonDown(MouseButtonEventArgs e)
    {
        if (Target != null)
        {
            Target.Focus();
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

can't you do that with the shortcut key combination

    <Grid>
    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"></ColumnDefinition>
        <ColumnDefinition></ColumnDefinition>
    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
    <Label Target="{Binding ElementName=textbox1}" Content="_Name"/>
    <TextBox Name="textbox1" Height="25" Grid.Column="1" VerticalAlignment="Top"/>
</Grid> 

Answer 4

Based on reading WPF label counterpart for HTML "for" attribute , you'd need an attached behavior to do that.