Re: notes on combo boxes

["Craig M. Buchek" <craig buchek com>]

Guy Harris wrote:

>         1) is driveable from the main keyboard (*NOT* just from the
>            arrow keys - if some Web form wants me to specify which US
>            state I live in, I want to be able to type "c" one or more
>            times to put "CA" in there, I don't want to have to hit the
>            down arrow key to go through all the "A"s first);

There's a slight problem with typing the first letter.  If I want say
MO, do I hit the M key multiple times, or do I hit M then O?  It seems
that non-editable widgets like the "hit the first letter multiple times"
way.  But editable combo boxes seem to prefer the "type in the beginning
of the word, and when you've typed enough you're there" way.  I prefer
the second method in all cases.  It seems like all the best
keyboard-usable interfaces do it that way -- adding a user in Novell
does it that way -- adding a user in User Manager for Domains does the
first letter thing, and everyone I know starts typing the whole user
name.  If I want to look for "bob", I type "bob", not hit B until I find
"bob".

Notice that the "type the first part of the word" method fits in well
with the ClueHunter idea.  It would be nice if I could at least change
the behavior to "type the word" if that isn't the default behavior.

Craig M. Buchek