I think you're on the right track starting with emulator settings.
Just some additional notes for future reference...
On my SX2000 Light and my emulator, tab (control-I) moves in current direction one field and the "enter" key moves to first field of next line in the current direction.
Escape (control-[) followed by tab (control-I) goes to previous field (reverse of current direction).
"Current direction" may be changed by going to bottom of form (sets direction to "backward"), by going to the top of form (sets direction to "forward"), or by executing the "reverse" command (numeric pad "+" or control-j to go to command entry and type "rev"). This switches the current direction from forward to backward or from backward to forward. This change in direction affects tab, esc/tab, and enter movement within the form as well as the direction of searches.
By the way, when I don't have access to the number pad commands (working on a laptop or emulator not configured to use the keypad in application mode), the following number pad alternates provide the essential functionality.
for 1-7, use esc/n, e.g. escape followed by 4 to commit
for PF4 or "-", use esc/q
for "," or "+", use control-j "rev" to reverse (as above)
for 8, use control-j "ins" to insert
for ".", use control-j "sea" to start search
I haven't worried about alternatives for the PF2 (or "/") or PF3 (or "*") to scroll up or down through available options in some form fields.