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widget Last modified: Friday, December 06, 2002

Pronounced wih-jit. (1) A generic term for the part of a GUI that allows the user to interface with the application and operating system. Widgets display information and invite the user to act in a number of ways. Typical widgets include buttons, dialog boxes, pop-up windows, pull-down menus, icons, scroll bars, resizable window edges, progress indicators, selection boxes, windows, tear-off menus, menu bars, toggle switches and forms. (2) The term also refers to the program that is written in order to make the graphic widget in the GUI look and perform in a specified way, depending on what action the user takes while interfacing with the GUI. The term widget is used to refer to either the graphic component or its controlling program or to refer to the combination of both.