Inline Edit

Inline editing is common in table cells, document titles, tag names, and profile fields. Normally it shows as plain text. On hover, a light background or a small pencil icon hints that it's editable. Clicking turns it into an input in place. Pressing Enter or moving focus away saves, and pressing Esc cancels.

Compared with editing in a dialog, inline editing is good for changing one or two simple fields. It's fast and doesn't break the user's context. If you need to change many fields, or fields depend on each other, use a dialog, a drawer, or a separate edit page.

Details to spell out: when it saves (Enter, blur, or a save button), what it looks like while saving and when saving fails, how to show invalid input, and whether only one cell can be edited at a time.