Add tab key navigation for empty text areas to move to the next field (#12547)

* Add tab key navigation for empty text areas to move to the next field

* Add tab key navigation for empty text areas to move to the next field

# Conflicts:
#	src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/fieldeditors/EditorTextArea.java

* Fix changlog file and refining the description of the change

* Fix description in changlog file

* Update changlog file

---------

Co-authored-by: Christoph <[email protected]>

Author: marwanemad07

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ Note that this project **does not** adhere to [Semantic Versioning](https://semv
 - For the Citation key generator patterns, we reverted how `[authorsAlpha]` would behave to the original pattern and renamed the LNI-based pattern introduced in V6.0-alpha to `[authorsAlphaLNI]`. [#12499](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/pull/12499)
 - We keep the list of recent files if one files could not be found. [#12517](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/pull/12517)
 - During the import process, the labels indicating individual paragraphs within an abstract returned by PubMed/Medline XML are preserved. [#12527](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/12527)
+- Pressing Tab in empty text fields of the entry editor now moves the focus to the next field instead of inserting a tab character. [#11938](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/11938)
 
 ### Fixed
 

src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/fieldeditors/EditorTextArea.java

@@ -6,10 +6,14 @@
 import java.util.ResourceBundle;
 import java.util.function.Supplier;
 
+import javafx.event.EventHandler;
 import javafx.fxml.Initializable;
+import javafx.scene.Node;
 import javafx.scene.control.ContextMenu;
 import javafx.scene.control.MenuItem;
 import javafx.scene.control.TextArea;
+import javafx.scene.input.KeyCode;
+import javafx.scene.input.KeyEvent;
 
 import org.jabref.gui.ClipBoardManager;
 import org.jabref.gui.fieldeditors.contextmenu.EditorContextAction;
@@ -36,6 +40,9 @@ public EditorTextArea(final String text) {
         setWrapText(true);
 
         ClipBoardManager.addX11Support(this);
+
+        // Add our custom Tab key event handler to traverse focus when empty.
+        addEventFilter(KeyEvent.KEY_PRESSED, new FieldTraversalEventHandler());
     }
 
     @Override
@@ -70,4 +77,25 @@ public void paste() {
         super.paste();
         pasteActionHandler.run();
     }
+
+    // Custom event handler for Tab key presses.
+    private static class FieldTraversalEventHandler implements EventHandler<KeyEvent> {
+        @Override
+        public void handle(KeyEvent event) {
+            if (event.getCode() == KeyCode.TAB && !event.isShiftDown() && !event.isControlDown()) {
+                event.consume();
+
+                // Get the current text area
+                Node node = (Node) event.getSource();
+                KeyEvent newEvent = new KeyEvent(node,
+                        event.getTarget(), event.getEventType(),
+                        event.getCharacter(), event.getText(),
+                        event.getCode(), event.isShiftDown(),
+                        true, event.isAltDown(),
+                        event.isMetaDown());
+
+                node.fireEvent(newEvent);
+            }
+        }
+    }
 }