RE: Terminology Question

["McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

I would be bouncing up and down if that came past me. 

"Focus" is the word.

There absolutely should be some form of cursor inside a data/text entry box/field.
Moreover, passable UI design would have the border of the active box change color and move or "glow" or throb or something to draw the user's eye to that location. 

Or "pre-fill" the next box with "Fill me" (or "feed me", or "Under-employed - will work for text"...) in light gray lettering that would be overwritten as the user started typing

-----Original Message-----
From:  David Artman
Sent: July-17-14 1:21 PM
To: Joel W; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Terminology Question

   "focus" is common parlance in OSs.

   Perhaps "text entry focus" to be specific as to what the user is doing.

   And I'd also issue a Priority 1 bug for such an inane usability issue
   and, when they make the cursor visible again, call it the "text
   cursor".

   Or as others have suggested, unask the question and don't speak to
   focus/cursor-location shifts.

   HTH, my 2A-c-, YMMV, IANADM;

   David

   -------- Original Message --------
   Subject: Terminology Question
   From: Joel W <[1]eleysium -at- outlook -dot- com>
   Date: Fri, May 30, 2014 2:41 pm
   To: "[2]techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <[3]techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
   Let's say you have a screen with several boxes / fields for entering
   data. The user moves from one box to the other, but there isn't a
   cursor in the box to indicate what box she is using. What do you call
   the presence in the box? i.e.:"Press enter. The ____ moves to the next
   box."
   Thanks,
   Joel


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