Edit controls are used to get textual information from the user. Edit controls are very flexible. They can get single lines or multiple lines. They can be configured to only allow numeric input and they can be configured to hide the text being typed (usefull for passwords). The notepad progam that comes with Windows uses an edit control for text editing.
To get and set the text in an edit control, use the WinXGetText$ and WinXSetText functions.