How users interact with input devices
Here's a list of common interactions, and how they map to gestures across touch, touchpad, mouse, keyboard , and pen/stylus for Windows 8.1.
See this feature in action as part of our App features, start to finish series: User interaction: Touch input... and beyond
Interactions and devices
Windows 8.1 supports a variety of input devices, from touch to keyboard. It also provides an intuitive and efficient interaction experience that is unique to each device, but functionally consistent across devices and modes, such as touch keyboard, mouse wheel, and pen eraser.
Design the UI of your Windows Store app for touch but consider the design implications for a variety of devices:
- Touchpad, which combines touch and mouse experiences
- Mouse
- Pen/stylus, specialized for digital ink
- Keyboard devices, for text editing and command shortcuts
Touch
Touchpad
Mouse
Keyboard (hardware)
Pen/Stylus
Select
Swipe opposite the scrolling direction (see Guidelines for cross-slide)
Tap two fingers
Right-click
Spacebar
Swipe opposite the scrolling direction (see Guidelines for cross-slide)
Show app bar
Swipe from top or bottom edge
Swipe from top or bottom edge
Right-click
Windows Logo Key+Z, menu key
Swipe from top or bottom edge
Show charms
Swipe from right edge
Swipe from right edge
Hover over top or bottom-right corner
Windows Logo Key+C
Swipe from right edge
Context menu
Tap on selected text, press and hold
Tap two fingers on selected text, press and hold
Right-click
Menu key
Tap on selected text, press and hold
Launch/activate
Tap
Tap
Left-click
Enter
Tap
Scrolling short distance
Slide
Slide two fingers
Scroll bar, arrow keys, left-click and slide
Arrow keys
Scroll bar
Scrolling long distance
Slide (including inertia)
Slide two fingers (including inertia)
Scroll bar, mouse wheel, left-click and slide
Page up, Page down
Scroll bar
Rearrange (drag)
Slide opposite the scrolling direction past a distance threshold (see Guidelines for cross-slide)
Press, hold, and slide
Left-click and slide
Ctrl-C or Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V
Slide opposite the scrolling direction past a distance threshold (see Guidelines for cross-slide)
Zoom
Pinch, stretch
Pinch, stretch
Mouse wheel, Ctrl+mouse wheel, UI command
Ctrl+Plus(+)/Minus(-)
UI command
Rotate
Turn
Turn
Ctrl+Shift+mouse wheel, UI command
Ctrl+Plus(+)/Minus(-)
UI command
Insert cursor/select text
Tap, tap on gripper
Tap
Left-click+slide, double-click
Arrow keys, Shift+arrow keys, Ctrl+arrow keys, and so on
Tap, tap on gripper
More information
Press and hold
Press and hold
Hover (with time threshold)
Move focus rectangle (with time threshold)
Press and hold
Move focus
N/A
N/A
N/A
Arrow keys, Tab
N/A
Interaction feedback
Touch visualizations
Cursor movement, cursor changes
Cursor movement, cursor changes
Focus rectangles
Pen visualizations
Related topics
Conceptual
Responding to user interaction
Reference
Samples (DOM)
HTML scrolling, panning and zooming sample
Input: DOM pointer event handling sample
Input: Instantiable gestures sample
Samples (Windows Store app APIs)
Input: Manipulations and gestures (JavaScript) sample
Input: Windows 8 gestures sample
Input: XAML user input events sample
XAML scrolling, panning, and zooming sample
Samples (DirectX)