A caret is a flashing line, block, or bitmap in the client area of a window. The caret typically indicates the place at which text or graphics will be inserted. The following illustration shows some common variations in the appearance of the caret.
Because only one window at a time can have the keyboard focus or be active, there is only one caret in the system. Generally, each window that accepts keyboard input must create the caret when it receives the keyboard focus and destroy the caret when it loses the keyboard focus. For more information on keyboard input, see Keyboard Input.
An application written for Microsoft® Windows® can create a caret, display or hide it, relocate the caret, and change its blink time.