Select All Text in Grid Edit Cells on Tab Navigation or Click

Description

When working with the Kendo UI for Angular Grid, it is often useful to automatically select the entire text in a cell when it receives focus, either through tab navigation or a mouse click. This functionality improves the editing experience by allowing users to quickly replace the text without manually selecting it.

This article addresses the following common questions:

• How can I automatically select text in a Angular Data Grid cell on focus or click?
• How can I enhance the editing workflow in the Angular Grid using tab navigation and mouse interaction?
• How can I use custom edit templates to enable text selection in the Angular Grid?

Environment

Product

Progress® Kendo UI® for Angular Grid

Solution

To implement this functionality, use a custom edit template that includes the Kendo UI for Angular TextBox component. Handle the focus event of the TextBox to select all text when the cell receives focus, whether through tab navigation or a mouse click.

Steps to Implement

1. Use the kendoGridEditTemplate directive to define a custom edit template for the column. Inside the template, include the TextBox component and bind it to the form control.

   html

   <kendo-grid-column field="ProductName" title="Product Name">
     <ng-template kendoGridEditTemplate let-dataItem="dataItem" let-formGroup="formGroup">
       <kendo-textbox kendoGridFocusable [formControl]="formGroup.get('ProductName')" #textbox (focus)="onFocus(textbox)"></kendo-textbox>
     </ng-template>
   </kendo-grid-column>

   Add the kendoGridFocusable directive to ensure that the TextBox can receive focus when navigating with the Tab key.

2. In the focus event handler, access the inner <input> element of the TextBox and call the select() method to highlight all text.

   typescript

   onFocus(textbox: TextBoxComponent): void {
     textbox.input.nativeElement.select();
   }

This approach ensures that the text is selected when the cell receives focus, regardless of whether the focus is triggered by tab navigation or a mouse click.

See Also

• Custom Editing in the Data Grid
• Keyboard Navigation in the Data Grid
• Angular Grid API Reference
• Kendo UI for Angular TextBox API Reference