Widget (computing)

A widget is a graphical component, or control, that the user interacts with, such as a window or a text box. Widgets are sometimes qualified as virtual to distinguish them from their physical counterparts, e.g. virtual buttons that can be clicked with a mouse cursor, vs physical buttons that can be pressed with a finger. Widgets are often packaged together in widget toolkits. Programmers use widgets to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

Various widgets:

• button (computing)
• check box
• radio button (computing)
• combo box
• icon (computing)
• text box (edit field)
• scrollbar
• menu (computing)
  • command menu
  • context menu
  • pie menu
• window (computing)
  • toolbar, panel
  • dialog box, modal window

See also

• widget toolkit