per the jquery UI documentation the line below should return the index of the open tab var selected = $('.selector').tabs('option', 'selected'); When I access the data using that line in the error console I get F is undefined jquery-1.3.2.min.js - line 12 using <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/jquery-1.3.2.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://jqueryui.com/latest/ui/ ui.core.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://jqueryui.com/latest/ui/ jquery-ui.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://jqueryui.com/latest/ui/ ui.tabs.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://jqueryui.com/latest/ui/ ui.dialog.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://jqueryui.com/latest/ui/ ui.dragable.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://jqueryui.com/latest/ui/ ui.droppable.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://jqueryui.com/latest/ui/ ui.resizable.js"></script> so is this a bug in jquery or in jquery UI?