diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1f86062..b737ea7 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ Improvements
 - Automatically update all elements when changing a ui system's viewport
 - Allow setting a default color for clickable links in UiStyle
 - Allow ElementHelper's KeybindButton to query a combination at a given index
+- Automatically select the first element when a dropdown is opened in auto nav mode
 
 Fixes
 - Fixed paragraph links having incorrect hover locations when using special text alignments
diff --git a/MLEM.Ui/Elements/Dropdown.cs b/MLEM.Ui/Elements/Dropdown.cs
index 185c1c5..c49c2c6 100644
--- a/MLEM.Ui/Elements/Dropdown.cs
+++ b/MLEM.Ui/Elements/Dropdown.cs
@@ -22,6 +22,13 @@ namespace MLEM.Ui.Elements {
             set {
                 this.Panel.IsHidden = !value;
                 this.OnOpenedOrClosed?.Invoke(this);
+
+                // select the first dropdown element in auto nav mode
+                if (value && this.Controls.IsAutoNavMode) {
+                    var firstChild = this.Panel.GetChildren().FirstOrDefault(c => c.CanBeSelected);
+                    if (firstChild != null)
+                        this.Root.SelectElement(firstChild, true);
+                }
             }
         }
         /// <summary>