Caret navigation

In computing, caret navigation is a kind of keyboard navigation where a caret (also known as a ‘text cursor’, ‘text insertion cursor’, or ‘text selection cursor’) is used to navigate within a text document. It is a fundamental feature for applications that deal with text, for example text editors (e.g., Notepad, Emacs and Vim), word processors (e.g., Microsoft Word, WordPerfect and WordStar), desktop publishing programs (e.g., PageMaker, Microsoft Publisher), and spreadsheets (e.g., Excel, Lotus 123).

This kind of navigation is also supported by some web browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer, where it is referred to as ‘caret browsing’. This can be contrasted with the alternative and more usual control methods of using a mouse to point to links and select text for copying or editing, or using tabs to step through and highlight each link on the page in turn.

In this text navigation mode the ‘cursor’, often depicted as a blinking vertical line, appears within the text on-screen. The user can then navigate throughout the text by using the arrow navigation keys to cause the cursor to move; typically changing the cursor’s location in increments of character position horizontally and of text line vertically.

Once the cursor has been positioned as desired, any text typed will appear at the location of the cursor, either inserting the text and pushing any subsequent text further downwards, or overwriting any existing text (a mode of operation typically toggled by the Insert Key on most computer keyboards/systems).

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