Glossary

     Common Window Controls

      1.    Button control allows clicking it to perform an action. Text and images can be placed on a button. The button has a specific name and allows you to write an event handler to control the actions performed when the button is clicked.

      2.    Check box is most commonly rendered as a box when the element is off and a box with a check when the element is on. The user can switch the state of the check box by clicking it with the mouse. A check box is a graphical component that can be in either "on" (true) or "off" (false) state. Clicking on a check box changes its state from "on" to "off," or from "off" to "on." Checkboxes are used to allow user to select several items with the click of a mouse. Groups of checkboxes can be used to create checklists.

      3.    Combo box lets user choose one among several choices. There are two very different forms of combo box component. Default form is uneditable combo box which is represented as button and drop-down list of values. The second form, called the editable combo box, features a text field with a small button abutting it.

      4.    Edit box is a control used to either display text, to request text, or to do both. It is provided as a rectangular control with a sunken white background and 3-D borders. By default, an edit box is used to display a single line of text. An edit box is referred to as multi-line when it can display more than one line text.

      5.    Group box is a static control used to create "physical" limits or sections of a dialog boxes. It is a rectangular box drawn around a group of controls to indicate that the controls are related and to provide a heading for the group. Group boxes are used to associate, isolate, and distinguish groups of related items in a dialog box. You can embed other controls, such as radio buttons, checkboxes, and pop-up menu buttons, within group boxes.

      6.    Header control displays headings at the top of columns of information. In some cases it lets the user sort the information by clicking the headings.

      7.    Listbox is used to create a list of items. This is a simple version of a tree. Nested rows might not be supported, but a listbox can contain multiple columns. The ListBox control is used to create a single- or multi-selection drop-down list. List Box Fields are used to allow users to make selections from a list of items created. A possible use would be for selecting a color for a product that is only made in certain colors.

      8.    List control is used traditionally to display data from a data source one item after the other or it although can be customized to view information in the classic rows and columns view. It provides a read-only view, and it doesn't support inline editing, paging, or sorting.

      9.    Menu is a list of options displayed to the user by a data processing system, from which the user can select an action to be initiated.

      10.    Menu bar is a horizontal strip at the top of a window, below the title bar and above the rest of the window that contains menu titles. You can choose the menus by using the mouse or the keyboard.

      11.    Progress bar. Sometimes a task running within a program might take a while to complete. It can be needed to know what task is occurring, how long the task might take, and how much work has already been done. One way of indicating work, and perhaps the amount of progress, is to use an animated image. Progress bar offers a simple way to graphically show a process completion progress. As the process progresses a bar extends across the component until the job is completed and the bar is filled. The movement of the bar is usually part of some multithreaded task filled with a color.

      12.    Radio button allows the user to choose only one of a number of options. When you choose one option, any previously selected option is unselected. Radio buttons are used when you want to let the user select one - and just one - option from a set of alternatives. Only one button in a group of radio buttons can be selected at one time.

      13.    Scrollbar is a familiar user-interface object and a graphical device used to change a user's view of the contents of a window. A ScrollBar consists of a slider, a trough, and scroll arrows.

      14.    Sliders are controls for choosing a value from a range of values. Common uses are volume controls, seekers for movie and sound files as well as color pickers. Once a slider is focused the arrow keys and Page Up / Page Down keys can be used to change the value.

      15.    Spin. There are many occasions where it's nice to have spin button control with autodisabling arrow buttons. It is a pair of arrows that user can click to increment or decrement a value displayed in a companion text control. User can also type in a value into text control or edit box directly. The value associated with a spin button control is called its current position.

      16.    Splitter controls are used to resize docked controls at run time. The Splitter control is often used with controls that have varying lengths of data to present, like Windows Explorer, whose data panes contain information of varying widths at different times.

      17.    Static text displays text that isn't changed onscreen, such as displaying interface information that end user will read or for labeling buttons, forms, and navigation. Static text is a text element that can be read by user but that does not support internal navigation. It controls provide a convenient way to display dialog box text. Static text controls often serve as labels for other controls.

      18.    Status bar is box at the bottom of window. Status bar can show a few different bits of information. The main usage of status bar is to show the loading process. Status bar is intended for a visual recognition of the users actions. It allows to see the following modes turning on/off:

      • Num Lock

      • Caps Lock

      • Scroll Lock

      19.    Tab control is analogous to the dividers in a notebook or the labels in a file cabinet. By using a tab control, an application can define multiple pages for the same area of window or dialog box. Each page consists of a certain type of information or a group of controls that application displays when user selects the corresponding tab. A tab control is a container window that organizes several controls in multiple pages.

      20.    Toolbar. Navigating a menu with a stylus can soon become tedious, especially if user selects the same menu item over and over again. The tool bar control appeals to reduce the number of clicks on menu items and performs executive menu options.

      21.    Tooltip is a small window which displays some text when user hovers mouse over a control giving a hint about what should be done with control. ToolTips are hidden most of the time. They appear automatically, or pop up, when the user pauses the mouse pointer over a tool. The ToolTip appears near the pointer and disappears when the user clicks a mouse button or moves the pointer away from the tool.

      22.    Tree control. Tree controls provide a hierarchical view and as a way to structure data hierarchically. The prototypical and probably most familiar example is a file system. With a tree menu control, also called treeview, the information is displayed in a hierarchical order, with the home topic at the top and the subordinated items underneath.

      .Net Controls

      1.    DropDownMenu replaces Menu. You can associate a DropDownMenu with any control, and a right mouse click automatically displays the shortcut menu.

      2.    MenuStrip is the top-level container that supersedes Menubar. It also provides key handling and multiple document interface (MDI) features.

      3.    StatusStrip is a combined control which is usually displayed at the bottom of a window, in which an application can display various kinds of status information.

      4.    ToolStrip is a horizontal row that has no limits on quantity. ToolStrip can have custom appearance and behavior, all with or without themes.