Apple 2 manual Text Input Lines that Expand, 9How expandos work

C H A P T E R 6

Data Input

Text Input Lines that Expand

You can reduce the amount of space required for several stacked input lines in your application by using expanding input lines, which are calledexpandos. Each expando consists of a text label to the left and a text value to its right. When a user taps an expando (the label or the value), a text-input area expands from it. A user can write in the expanded text-input area, and can close it by tapping another expando. Closing an expando collapses it and updates its value. If the expando currently has no value, two hyphens are displayed. Figure 6-9 shows how an expando works.

Figure 6-9How expandos work

Field label (a bullet in this case)

A field with no value

1.After editing the expanded field, a user taps an input field that’s not expanded

2.The previously expanded field collapses and the tapped field expands

Although expandos seem to make the most of a small amount of screen space quite elegantly, they have not proven successful with users. The way they work is not particularly intuitive, and users are prone to making mistakes with expandos even after learning how to use them. Instead of expandos, you should consider using straightforward labeled input lines in slips.

Avoid including buttons or other controls in expandos. When expanded, an expando should only contain an input line. If your application needs more than that in an expando, it should be using slips instead.

Writing, Drawing, and Editing 6-11