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Text Boxes: A text box (also referred to as an edit control) is a rectangular control where the user enters or edits text, as shown in Figure 7.17. It can be defined to support a single line or multiple lines of text. The outline border of the control is optional, although the border is typically included when displaying the control in a toolbar or a secondary window. The standard text box control provides basic text input and editing support. Editing includes the insertion or deletion of characters and the option of text wrapping. Although individual font or paragraph properties are not supported, the entire control can support a specific font setting. You can also use text boxes to display read-only text that is not editable, but still selectable. When setting this option with the standard control, the system automatically changes the background color of the field to indicate to the user the difference in behavior. A text box supports standard interactive techniques for navigation and contiguous selection. Horizontal scrolling is available for single line text boxes, and horizontal and vertical scroll bars are supported for multiple line text boxes. You can limit the number of characters accepted as input for a text box to whatever is appropriate for the context. In addition, you can support auto-exit for text boxes defined for fixed-length input; that is, as soon as the last character is typed in the text box, the focus moves to the next control. For example, you can define a five-character auto-exit text box to facilitate the entry of zip code, or three two-character auto-exit text boxes to support the entry of a date. Use auto-exit text boxes sparingly; the automatic shift of focus can surprise the user. They are best limited to situations involving extensive data entry. Rich-Text Boxes: A rich-text box, as shown in Figure 7.18, provides the same basic text editing support as a standard text box. In addition, a rich-text box supports font properties, such as typeface, size, color, bold, and italic format, for each character and paragraph format property, such as alignment, tabs, indents, and numbering. The control also supports printing of its content and embedding of OLE objects.