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Motif and CDE 2.1 Style Guide Reference

Text Field (Abstract Control)

Reference

Description

A text field is a control in which characters can be displayed and selected. All text fields are either text-display fields or text-entry fields.

When to Use

Required
Provide a text field when you display a sequence of characters that the user can manipulate as a unit or in which you want to allow the user to navigate and manipulate at least one subsequence of characters.

Guidelines

Required
Organize elements of a text field into complete words as the first level of a multilevel hierarchy (for example, double-clicking SELECT on a word should select the word). The boundary of a word is defined by a language's characters in the text field.

Recommended
In a multiline text field, support a multilevel hierarchy for elements above the level of words, up to and including the entire selection scope. For example, support sentences and/or lines, paragraphs, sections, and so on, up to the entire contents of the selection scope.

Required
Support point and range selection techniques and multilevel selection techniques for text.

Required
If supporting area techniques, provide a choice that allows the user to switch between use of range and area techniques.

Required
When the user presses Ctrl Space in a text field, it should have the same effect as a keyboard-based point selection technique.

Required
When the user presses Ctrl Shift Space in a text field, it should have the same effect as a keyboard-based range adjust click selection technique.

Required
If word-wrapping is used and as a result multiple lines are displayed in a text field, treat each visual line as a separate line for navigation operations.

Recommended
Support discontiguous selections in text.

Recommended
Support the area selection model in the text field, if the characters are displayed in a fixed-width font.

Required
The directional keys should operate in the following manner:

^
In a multiline text field, move the cursor up one visually displayed line.

V
In a multiline text field, move the cursor down one visually displayed line.

<
Move the cursor left one character.

>
Move the cursor right one character.

Required
The directional keys augmented by Ctrl should operate as follows:

Ctrl <
In a text field with multiple words, move the cursor to the beginning of the word to the left.

Ctrl >
In a text field with multiple words, move the cursor to the beginning of the word to the right.

Required
When the user presses a directional key to move the cursor horizontally, wrap the text cursor from the end of one row to the beginning of the next row (and vice versa). Do not, however, wrap between the beginning and the end of the text field.

Required
The navigational keys should operate as follows:

Home (or Begin)
Place the cursor at the beginning of the current line.

END
Place the cursor at the end of the current line.

Ctrl Home (or Ctrl Begin)
Place the cursor before the first character.

Ctrl End
Place the cursor after the last character.

Recommended
The navigational keys should operate as follows when augmented with the Ctrl key:

Ctrl ^
In a multiline text field, if you support hierarchical elements above the level of a line, move the cursor to the beginning of the previous element at the hierarchical level above the line. For example, if paragraphs are the hierarchical parts above the line, move the cursor to the beginning of the previous paragraph.

Ctrl V
In a multiline text field, if you support hierarchical elements above the level of a line, move the cursor to the beginning of the next element at the hierarchical level above the line. For example, if paragraphs are the hierarchical parts above the line, move the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph.

Required
When nontextual elements that have no internal navigation (such as icons or choices) are included as elements in text and laid out as characters, navigation should perform in the following ways:

  1. When the user is navigating through text, a text cursor should always stop between adjacent characters, between a character and a nontextual element, and between two adjacent nontextual elements.

  2. Use an element cursor to indicate that focus is on a nontextual element.

  3. When a text cursor is immediately to the left or right of a nontextual element, allow > and < to remove the text cursor and move focus to the nontextual element.

  4. When an element cursor is on a nontextual element, allow > and < to remove focus from the nontextual element and place the text cursor to the right or left of the element.

  5. Treat nontextual elements as words with regard to multilevel navigation. That is, if the cursor is on the nontextual element or immediately before it and the user presses Shift >, move the text cursor to the beginning of the word (or nontextual element) following it. If the cursor is on the nontextual element or immediately after it and the user presses Shift <, move the text cursor immediately before it.

    6. Required
    Treat nontextual elements included with characters in text either as selectable or nonselectable consistently within the scope. If they are treated as nonselectable, exclude them from selections that physically contain them.

    Required
    When active regions (regions of text that act like action choices) are allowed in a text field, use the following rules:

    1. Active regions must be highlighted to indicate their boundaries and must not overlap.

    2. When the user clicks the SELECT button within an active region, invoke the action associated with that region and move the text cursor to the pointer location.

    3. When the user presses the SELECT button within an active region without clicking (including releasing SELECT past the threshold time), select the active region.

    4. When the user clicks Ctrl SELECT within an active region, move the text cursor to the location clicked, but do not invoke the action associated with the region.

    5. When the text cursor is within an active region, the default action should be invoking the action that corresponds to the region.

    6. If the user can edit the text field, all characters typed have their usual effect regardless of whether or not the text cursor is within an active region. For example, when the user presses Enter in an editable multiline text control, insert a new line in the active region. When the user presses Ctrl Enter, invoke the default action, which invokes the action that corresponds to the region.

      7. Recommended
      When the length of the data is predictable, such as a date, time, or telephone number, make the field wide enough and tall enough to show all of the data.

      Recommended
      Provide a visible cue to indicate when the information in a text-display field can be scrolled. For example, provide left and right arrow buttons on a one-line text-display field or provide a scroll bar for text-display fields with more than one line.

      Essential Related Topics

      For more information, see the Cascading (Choice Type), Choice, Input Focus, Spring-Loaded (Control Type), Text-Entry Field (Control), and Text-Display Field reference pages.

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