An edit control is selected and receives the input focus when a user clicks the mouse inside it or presses the tab key. After it is selected, the edit control displays its text (if any) and a flashing caret that indicates the insertion point. The user can then enter text, move the insertion point, or select text to be moved or deleted by using the keyboard or the mouse. An edit control can send notification messages to its parent window in the form of WM_COMMAND messages. For more information about messages from an edit control, see Edit Control Notification Messages. A parent window can send messages to an edit control in a dialog box by calling the SendDlgItemMessage function. Each of the messages sent to edit controls are discussed in this overview.
The system provides both single line edit controls (sometime called SLEs) and multiline edit controls (sometimes called MLEs). Edit controls belong to the EDIT window class.
A combo box is a control that combines much of the functionality of an edit control and a list box. In a combo box, the edit control displays the current selection and the list box presents options a user can select. For more information about combo boxes, see Combo Boxes.
Many developers use the dialog boxes provided in the common dialog box library (COMDLG32.DLL) to perform tasks that otherwise might require customized edit controls. For information about common dialog boxes, see Common Dialog Box Library.