Caret navigation

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), document viewer (e.g., Atril),[3] desktop publishing programs (e.g., PageMaker, Microsoft Publisher), and spreadsheets (e.g., Excel, Lotus 1-2-3).

The user can also perform various actions to manipulate the text, such as: Caret navigation usually also incorporates a form of viewport scrolling control where the caret moves freely within certain margins of a static display but triggers a scrolling event upon reaching one of the margins (either the edge of the screen/window/text field or a point a certain number of lines/characters within said edge).

The view within a WYSIWYG word processor, for example, may scroll the whole viewport a certain amount down the page as the caret nears the lower edge of the edit window.

This keeps the text currently being entered or edited roughly centered without excessive, distracting, and potentially computationally expensive line-by-line scrolling.

The margins that trigger a scrolling action are effectively increased to their maximum possible size (vs the minimum possible with the web edit box), causing the caret to be re-centered any time it attempts to move.