activate

Summary

Fires when the object is set as the active element.

Overview Table

Synchronous	No
Bubbles	Yes
Target	dom/Element
Cancelable	No
Default action	see Notes

## Examples

The following example demonstrates the order of event firing for the onactivate and onload events. As each event fires, it appends a string to the div element within the document. The onactivate event fires before the onload event.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function fnActivate(){
    oDIV1.innerHTML += "<br/><br/>The <b>onactivate</b> event, available as of
        Internet Explorer 5.5, fires first on the body element.";
}
function fnLoad(){
    oDIV1.innerHTML += "<br/><br/>The <b>onload</b> event, available as of
        Internet Explorer 4.0, fires after the <i>onactivate</i> event fires
        on the body element.";
}
</script>
</head>
<body onactivate="fnActivate();" onload="fnLoad();">
<div id="oDIV1"></div>
</body>
</html>

View live example

Notes

Remarks

Note Using the setActive method has no effect on document focus. Using the focus method on an individual element causes the element to gain focus and become the active element. When one object loses activation and another object becomes the activeElement, the onfocus event fires on the object becoming the activeElement only after the onblur event fires on the object losing activation. Each document may have up to one active element. Set the active element with the setActive or focus methods. Using the focus method on a document that does not have the focus moves the document to the front of the display. Additionally, the document’s active element gains focus. The onactivate event fires before the onload event for any of the objects listed in the Applies To section. For Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and later, the event.fromElement property is now exposed by this event. For Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 and later, focus on a Document, and the activeElement of a Document can be managed separately. Use the onactivate event to manage formatting changes when an element is made active. Change activation from the event.fromElement to the event.srcElement. To invoke this event, do one of the following:

Click an element other than the activeElement element of the document.
Use the keyboard to move focus from the active element to another element.
Invoke the setActive method on an element, when the element is not the active element.

The pEvtObj parameter is required for the following interfaces:

HTMLAnchorEvents2
HTMLAreaEvents2
HTMLButtonElementEvents2
HTMLControlElementEvents2
HTMLDocumentEvents2
HTMLElementEvents2
HTMLFormElementEvents2
HTMLImgEvents2
HTMLFrameSiteEvents2
HTMLInputFileElementEvents2
HTMLInputImageEvents2
HTMLInputTextElementEvents2
HTMLLabelEvents2
HTMLLinkElementEvents2
HTMLMapEvents2
HTMLMarqueeElementEvents2
HTMLObjectElementEvents2
HTMLOptionButtonElementEvents2
HTMLScriptEvents2
HTMLSelectElementEvents2
HTMLStyleElementEvents2
HTMLTableEvents2
HTMLTextContainerEvents2
HTMLWindowEvents2

Syntax

Standards information

There are no standards that apply here.

Event handler parameters

pEvtObj [in]: Type: ****IHTMLEventObj****

Attributions

Microsoft Developer Network: [active Event Article]