Glossary » Widgets

racing stripes

close parallel lines used to indicate that a control is draggable, similar to the way that parallel bumps are used on physical devices, such as sliding switches, to provide grip and tactile feedback. Racing stripes are most familiar in the…

radio button

based on the metaphor of buttons on a car radio (for selecting a radio station), a radio button is a small button in a group of buttons where only one button can be selected at a time (unlike a checkbox).…

resize box

the small box, usually at the bottom-right of a window, used to change the size of the window by dragging it to the desired size.

resize corner

a special region at the corner of a window, used to change the size of the window by dragging it to the desired size. While resize boxes are usually just at the bottom-right, resize corners are at all 4 corners…

resize handle

a small box that appears at each of the corners of a selected object (and sometimes at the sides also) that can be dragged to alter the size of the object.

rollovers

actions that occur as a user moves a pointer over objects, such as the hiliting of buttons as a user moves over them, in order to indicate that they are clickable, and also sometimes used to provide additional information (such…

routing slip

a type of dialog box for routing information (a file or email) with a specified sender, recipient, data format, and transmission medium (NewtonOS term).

scroll arrow

a small arrow at either end of a scrollbar that can be clicked to shift the view area of a document incrementally in one direction at a time.

scroll elevator

a box within a scrollbar that allows the user to move to a specific region by dragging the box to the appropriate location within the scrollbar. Also called a “scrollbox” or “thumb”.

An elevator is somewhat unique in the Open…

scroll thumb

a box or “thumb” within a scrollbar that allows the user to move to a specific region by dragging the box to the appropriate location within the scrollbar. Also called a “scrollbox” or “elevator”.

scrollbar

(or scroll bar) a control for moving the view of an area that is too large to be entirely visible in its display region. Vertical scrollbars (shown below) move the data up and down, and horizontal scrollbars move the data…

scrollbar gutter

or scrollbar channel; the area of the scrollbar that is outside of the scrollbox. Clicking within the gutter pages up or down.

scrollbox

a box within a scrollbar that allows the user to move to a specific region by dragging the box to the appropriate location within the scrollbar. Also called a “thumb” or “elevator”.

scrolling listbox

a list of text items that can be scrolled, usually allowing one or more items to be selected.

selection box

a box, also known as a marquee, that appears around a selected region, such as a rectangular area selected in a drawing program.

selection pointer

a pointer in the shape of an arrow, used to select and drag icons and other graphical objects.

separator bar

a heavy line dividing items in a list, with possibly an item title and item controls (NewtonOS term).

shared window system

a system that allows a single-user application to be shared among multiple users without modifying the original application. Such a system shows identical views of the application to the users and combines the input from the users or allows only…

slider

a control that lets a user drag a knob along a linear track to specify a value within a limited range. Often includes tick marks to indicate steps for the values. Also, if the range is not continuous, the slider…

slip

(psychology) an error resulting from skilled behavior being performed at a time when it shouldn’t, such as accidentally driving to the office when you intended to drive to the store. Highly-practiced behaviors become automatic and the triggers for these automatic…

Slow Keys

a keyboard feature that prevents keystrokes from registering until a key has been held down for a certain period of time. This is extremely useful for people with motor impairments that make it difficult to target keys accurately or that…

snapshot

(groupware) a quick photo of another person that updates periodically to provide a basic awareness of their presence. (Also called a “porthole”.)

Snapshots are vaguely similar to a videoconference, except that no audio is provided, the frame rate is intentionally…

softkey

a key whose label is specified in software, as in ATM machines and mobile phone interfaces.

spin box

a widget for input of numbers, consisting of a text entry field that allows only numbers to be entered and 2 small up and down arrows for increasing and decreasing the value.

split bar

a short, thick black line at the end of a scrollbar that can be dragged to split a window into independently-scrollable panes. As it is dragged, a dotted line, called the split line, appears to indicate where the panes of…