C H A P T E R 8

User Input

■3 1/2 (with a nonbreaking space)

■0.5%

These are examples of strings treated as more than one word:

■7/10/6

■Blue cheese (with a regular space)

■“Wow!” (The quotation marks and exclamation point are not part of the word.)

In some contexts—in a programming language, for example—it may be appropriate to allow users to select both the left and right parentheses (or braces or brackets) in a pair, as well as all the characters between them, by double-clicking either one of them. That would mean that a user could select the entire expression

[x+y–(4*3)^(n–1)]

by double-clicking [ or ].

Selecting Text With the Arrow Keys

See “Extending Text Selection With the Shift and Arrow Keys” (page 101)

Selections in Spreadsheets

To select a single field (cell), the user clicks in it. The user can also select a field by moving to it with the Tab or Return key.

To select part of the contents of a field, the user must first select the field, then click again to select a part.

A user should be able to quickly select a row or column in a table—for example, clicking a column heading should select the column. Tables can also support Command-click for selecting discontinuous fields.

Pressing the Tab key cycles through the fields in an order determined by your application, and Shift-Tab navigates in the opposite direction. Typically, the sequence is from left to right, then from top to bottom. Pressing Tab from the last field selects the first field.

If the concept of rows doesn’t make sense in a particular context, the Return key should have the same effect as the Tab key.

Selections in Graphics

There are several conventions for selecting graphic objects. This section describes two ways to show selection feedback; other situations may require other solutions.

An object-based graphics document is a collection of individual graphic objects. To select an object, the user clicks it once. The object is then bracketed with handles, which the user can use to move or resize the object.

In object-based graphics documents, users can select with the mouse alone or a combination of the mouse and the keyboard. A user can drag a dotted rectangle and select every object that is included, even partially, within the rectangle’s outline. The user can also select an initial object and then use Shift-click or

Selecting

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2008-06-09 | © 1992, 2001-2003, 2008 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.