A text box[lower-alpha 1] is a control element of a graphical user interface, that should enable the user to input text information to be used by a program.[1][2]Human Interface Guidelines recommend a single-line text box when only one line of input is required, and a multi-line text box only if more than one line of input may be required. Non-editable text boxes can serve the purpose of simply displaying text.
A typical text box is a rectangle of any size, possibly with a border that separates the text box from the rest of the interface. Text boxes may contain zero, one, or two scrollbars. Text boxes usually display a text cursor (commonly a blinking vertical line), indicating the current region of text being edited. It is common for the mousecursor to change its shape when it hovers over a text box.
Standard functionality
Typical implementations allow a user to do the following:
Type in text using a keyboard
When keys are pressed, the text appears where the caret is. Some very simple text boxes may not show a caret, which would suggest that new characters typed in will appear at the end of the current text.
Navigate and select portions of text
Using a mouse:
Change the caret position by clicking the desired point with a mouse cursor;
Select a portion of text by pressing the main mouse button while pointing the cursor at one end of the desired part of the text and dragging the cursor to the other end while holding the button pressed.
Using the keyboard:
Pressing arrow keys changes caret position by one character or line (in multiline text boxes);
Pressing Home / End keys (Microsoft's Windows OS) or Command-left arrow / Command-right arrow (Apple's Mac OS) moves the caret to the beginning / end of the line;
Pressing Page Up / Down moves the caret a page (the number of lines that can be displayed in the text box at a time) backward / forward (Windows) or moves the scrollbar thumb a page backward / forward without changing the caret position (Mac OS);
Holding the Ctrl key (Windows) while pressing arrow keys or Home / End keys makes the caret move at larger steps, e.g. words, paragraphs or beginning / end of document;
Holding the Option key (Mac OS) while pressing arrows moves the caret whole words or paragraphs;
Holding the Command key while pressing up or down arrows (Mac OS) or Holding the Ctrl key while pressing home / end (Windows) moves the caret to the beginning or end of the document;
Holding the shift key while changing the caret position with a mouse or keyboard selects the text between the caret position from when shift was first pressed and its current position.
Pressing Control-A|Ctrl+A (Windows) selects all text.
Edit the text (enable changing the text already entered)
Work in insert or overwrite mode, typically switched using Insert key. In insert mode if there is a character to the right of the caret, the new character will be inserted before it, while in overwrite mode typing a new character will replace (overwrite) the character to the right of the caret position.
Typing in a text while some part of the text already entered is selected will replace the selected text.
Delete / Backspace keys remove one character right / left of current caret position, while pressing them together with the Ctrl or command key removes one word.
Edit the text using standard clipboard operations.
Undo / Redo changes with Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y (Windows) or command-Z / command-shift-Z (Mac OS)
The keys indicated relate to the text box widgets in Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X; similar if not identical keyboard bindings exist under the X Window System and other systems, and typically follow the same scheme as Windows.
References and notes
↑ Also called an input box, text field or text entry box.
The keyboard for IBM PC-compatible computers is standardized. However, during the more than 30 years of PC architecture being frequently updated, many keyboard layout variations have been developed.
Scroll Lock is a lock key on most IBM-compatible computer keyboards.
A scrollbar is an interaction technique or widget in which continuous text, pictures, or any other content can be scrolled in a predetermined direction on a computer display, window, or viewport so that all of the content can be viewed, even if only a fraction of the content can be seen on a device's screen at one time. It offers a solution to the problem of navigation to a known or unknown location within a two-dimensional information space. It was also known as a handle in the very first GUIs. They are present in a wide range of electronic devices including computers, graphing calculators, mobile phones, and portable media players. The user interacts with the scrollbar elements using some method of direct action, the scrollbar translates that action into scrolling commands, and the user receives feedback through a visual updating of both the scrollbar elements and the scrolled content.
In human–computer interaction and user interface design, cut, copy, and paste are related commands that offer an interprocess communication technique for transferring data through a computer's user interface. The cut command removes the selected data from its original position, while the copy command creates a duplicate; in both cases the selected data is kept in temporary storage. The data from the clipboard is later inserted wherever a paste command is issued. The data remains available to any application supporting the feature, thus allowing easy data transfer between applications.
In computing, a Control keyCtrl is a modifier key which, when pressed in conjunction with another key, performs a special operation. Similarly to the Shift key, the Control key rarely performs any function when pressed by itself. The Control key is located on or near the bottom left side of most keyboards, with many featuring an additional one at the bottom right.
The tab keyTab ↹ on a keyboard is used to advance the cursor to the next tab stop.
In computing, a keyboard shortcut also known as hotkey is a series of one or several keys to quickly invoke a software program or perform a preprogrammed action. This action may be part of the standard functionality of the operating system or application program, or it may have been written by the user in a scripting language. Some integrated keyboards also include pointing devices; the definition of exactly what counts as a "key" sometimes differs.
The Shift key⇧ Shift is a modifier key on a keyboard, used to type capital letters and other alternate "upper" characters. There are typically two shift keys, on the left and right sides of the row below the home row. The Shift key's name originated from the typewriter, where one had to press and hold the button to shift up the case stamp to change to capital letters; the shift key was first used in the Remington No. 2 Type-Writer of 1878; the No. 1 model was capital-only. On the US layout and similar keyboard layouts, characters that typically require the use of the shift key include the parentheses, the question mark, the exclamation point, and the colon.
The Alt keyAlt on a computer keyboard is used to change (alternate) the function of other pressed keys. Thus, the Alt key is a modifier key, used in a similar fashion to the Shift key. For example, simply pressing A will type the letter 'a', but holding down the Alt key while pressing A will cause the computer to perform an Alt+A function, which varies from program to program. The international standard ISO/IEC 9995-2 calls it Alternate key. The key is located on either side of the space bar, but in non-US PC keyboard layouts, rather than a second Alt key, there is an 'Alt Gr' key to the right of the space bar. Both placements are in accordance with ISO/IEC 9995-2. With some keyboard mappings, the right Alt key can be reconfigured to function as an AltGr key although not engraved as such.
Backspace is the keyboard key that originally pushed the typewriter carriage one position backwards and in modern computer systems moves the display cursor one position backwards, removes the character at that position, and shifts back the cursor back by one position.
Arrow keys or cursor movement keys are keys on a computer keyboard that are either programmed or designated to move the cursor in a specified direction.
The Option key, ⌥, is a modifier key present on Apple keyboards. It is located between the Control key and the Command key on a typical Mac keyboard. There are two Option keys on modern Mac desktop and notebook keyboards, one on each side of the space bar.
In computing, caret navigation is a kind of keyboard navigation where a caret is used to navigate within a text document.
In human–computer interaction, a cursor is an indicator used to show the current position on a computer monitor or other display device that will respond to text input.
On personal computers with numeric keypads that use Microsoft operating systems, such as Windows, many characters that do not have a dedicated key combination on the keyboard may nevertheless be entered using the Alt code. This is done by pressing and holding the Alt key, then typing a number on the keyboard's numeric keypad that identifies the character and then releasing Alt.
A Hebrew keyboard comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards are bilingual, with Latin characters, usually in a US Qwerty layout. Trilingual keyboard options also exist, with the third script being Arabic or Russian, due to the sizable Arabic- and Russian-speaking populations in Israel.
The Home key is commonly found on desktop and laptop keyboards. The key has the opposite effect of the End key. In limited-size keyboards where the Home key is missing the same functionality can be reached via the key combination of Fn+←.
In computing, Control-V is a key stroke with a variety of uses including generation of a control character in ASCII code, also known as the synchronous idle (SYN) character. The key stroke is generated by pressing the V key while holding down the Ctrl key on a computer keyboard. For MacOS based systems, which lack a Ctrl key, the common replacement of the ⌘ Cmd key works.
Unicode input is the insertion of a specific Unicode character on a computer by a user; it is a common way to input characters not directly supported by a physical keyboard. Unicode characters can be produced either by selecting them from a display or by typing a certain sequence of keys on a physical keyboard. In addition, a character produced by one of these methods in one web page or document can be copied into another. In contrast to ASCII's 96 element character set, Unicode encodes hundreds of thousands of graphemes (characters) from almost all of the world's written languages and many other signs and symbols besides.
A computer keyboard is a peripheral input device modeled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches. Replacing early punched cards and paper tape technology, interaction via teleprinter-style keyboards have been the main input method for computers since the 1970s, supplemented by the computer mouse since the 1980s.
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