Appendix D. Glossary

associated label
A type of control. The user cannot operate or change the text in the associated label. Typically, associated labels are used to explain other controls such as list boxes without captions. The text immediately before a control in tab order is the control's associated label.
caption
The text displayed at the top of a control or in the title bar of a window.
child window
A window included in another window (parent window). For example, typically, an application uses child windows to divide one parent window into several work areas. In a dialog box, check boxes, text boxes, and other controls are equivalent to child windows of the dialog box.
control
Text boxes, command buttons, and other graphical objects placed on windows are called controls. Controls displayed on a window are equivalent to child windows of the window.
date/time picker
A control that allows you to select a date or time.
event
Any user action or program status change that can be detected by a computer. Events generated by user operations include mouse clicks, menu selections, and key presses. Other events, which are generated inside the operating system or applications, include exceptions, window creations, and window closures.
focus
A temporary attribute of the user interface objects (windows, views, dialog boxes, buttons, etc.). The object on which the focus is placed can accept user entry. For example, when a text box is focused, if you enter a character string, the character string is displayed in the text box. Normally, the focused object is differentiated from other objects in its appearance (with highlighting, for example).
handle
A unique four-byte integer value used to identify each window or control to be accessed. The operating system assigns handles.
tab order
The order in which the focus is moved among the controls placed on a window by pressing the Tab key.