Although the tabbing order for the objects that are located on a master page is displayed on the Design View tab, you can change the order for these objects only on the Master Pages tab.The objects on the master page are placed in two areas, one above the content area and one below the content area. The tabbing order is set for objects within each of these two areas. Consequently, you can only change the tabbing order within each area.
Note: When you change the tabbing order on a master page, any pages in your form that are using this master page are affected by the change.