Parameter widgets
The control next to a parameter is chosen from the kind of value it holds, and the drag-and-type gesture is the same on all of them.
A widget is the control beside a parameter's name. It is selected automatically from the value's type, so there is nothing to set up. The scrub-and-type gesture below works on every editable one; the right-click menus differ by surface.
These controls appear on a node's body in the The node graph and in the pinned panel where you collect the ones you perform with. See The Parameters panel & hotbar.
The widget types
Number field for a single number. Drag left and right to scrub, or click once to type an exact value. Where the parameter declares a range, a slider is drawn instead and dragging stays inside it. A plain number field treats its range as a suggestion, so you can scrub or type past it.
Vector fields for positions, sizes and the like: two or three number fields side by side, labelled X / Y / Z, each dragging and typing on its own. Where the three are a choice of axis rather than a measurement, three X / Y / Z toggles appear in their place.
Checkbox for an on/off switch.
Trigger, a round button that fires once when clicked and springs back. Use it for momentary actions such as resetting a Feedback Start loop. It never sticks on the way a checkbox does.
Dropdown for a list of named choices, a blend mode for example. Hovering an option previews it live in the The viewport before you commit. Long lists get a search box, and lists of attribute names accept free text as well. Options that would cost a full recook are skipped by the preview rather than stalling the frame.
Preset dropdowns are the same widget with a job on the side: picking an option creates the producer node the option names and wires it into the pin for you. Wiring a pin normally replaces its widget with a read-only display of what the wire carries, but a preset dropdown is kept, because it is the only way to re-pick. Wire something of your own into that pin instead and it reads Custom while your wire is there, and shows your last preset again when you pull the wire out.
Text input for typing: labels and the like, with a taller editor where the parameter takes several lines. A file path takes a text field and a Browse button that opens the system picker.
Colour picker, a swatch that opens the full colour wheel and sliders.
Curve editor, a small editable graph for shaping easing and falloff. Drag the points and handles to redraw the curve. See The curve editor.
Gradient, a colour band for blends of colour across a range. Double-click the band to add a stop, drag a stop to move it, and right-click one to remove it, down to a floor of two. What flows on the wires covers where gradients flow.
Waveform, a read-only trace of an incoming signal.
Some values cannot be shown inline at all. A Texture, Material, Field or Camera arrives from a connection upstream, and its row renders nothing. A number array shows its first value and its length, 0.5 (128), and an animation curve shows its keyframe count.
A parameter carrying a formula swaps its widget for a green field showing the resolved value behind a =, so it reads as a number but is flagged as computed. Click it once to edit the formula in place. An animated parameter keeps its widget and takes an orange wash on the node body, plus a coloured dot in the Parameters panel. More in Keyframing.
Shared moves
Press and drag across a number to scrub it smoothly, or click once and type for an exact value. Enter commits a typed value and Esc abandons it.
The two surfaces carry different right-click menus, which is worth knowing before you go looking for an item on the wrong one.
On a pinned row: Copy Value, then Paste Value onto another parameter of the same kind. Paste is shown greyed out rather than hidden when the types do not match, so a colour cannot land on a number. Reset to Default returns the parameter to how it shipped, and appears only where the parameter declares a default. Rename Label, the hotbar items and Unpin sit below.
On a node body: Group…, Adjust range… and Save as default, then a Reset section offering This node and, where one exists, Saved default for this type. Those reset the authored ranges and groups, not the value. That menu hangs off the parameter's label, and only on the main canvas: a vector row such as Position or Scale builds its label differently and opens nothing, and neither a floating subgraph editor nor the Parameters panel carries it.
Editing many at once
Select several pinned parameters, by clicking then Shift-clicking to add more, or by dragging a box around them, and Delete removes the lot in one go. Reordering stays one pin at a time, so a selection does not drag as a block.
A pin's label can be renamed: right-click, choose Rename Label, type, and press Enter. Clicking away commits it too, and Esc cancels. The underlying parameter keeps its real name. Only the label changes.
On a node body there is a second, separate selection that does something else. Shift-click or Cmd-click a numeric field to add it to a set, across as many nodes as you like, and the set stays put between frames. Then drag or type on any one of them and the edit reaches all of them at once: a drag applies the amount you moved to every field in the set, so values that started apart stay apart, while a typed number sets them all to that number. A plain click on a field outside the set drops it.
Arranging a node's controls
The parameters on a node body can be rearranged, and the arrangement is saved with the project rather than being a per-session tidy-up.
Group… puts the parameter you right-clicked, plus anything in the node-body selection above, into a named section. Type an existing name to move parameters into that section, or a new one to make it. Cmd+G is a shortcut to the same dialog whenever parameter rows are selected. Sections draw a header on the node body with a chevron, ▾ open and ▸ Name (N) closed, and clicking the header collapses the section. Wires into a collapsed section re-route onto its header row rather than disappearing.
Parameters also drag to reorder, by the grip in the row's left gutter, either within a section or across into another one. A drop is one undoable move.
Adjust range… overrides a parameter's min, max and step. The three fields drag to scrub or click to type, and ✓ applies while ✕ cancels. Read all three before applying: on a parameter you have not overridden yet they open at 0, 1 and 0.01 rather than at the range the parameter actually ships with, so an angle that runs 0 to 360 offers you 0 to 1 and applying without touching it is a real change. The rest of what it does not do is worth knowing too. There is no soft and hard range distinction, no per-parameter way back other than Reset ▸ This node, which clears every range, group and ordering you authored on that node at once, and a value that makes no sense, a max below the min or a step of zero, is dropped without a word while the dialog closes as though it applied.
Save as default promotes the whole arrangement on that node to every node of its type, from now on and across sessions. It copies the lot, not just the parameter you right-clicked, and it is not undoable. Reset ▸ Saved default for this type takes it away again.
Two limits are worth expecting. Sections only draw on nodes that shipped with sections already, meaning nodes with at least six inputs and at least two named factory groups. On anything smaller, Group… records your grouping and changes nothing you can see, and the reorder grips do not appear either. And whether a section is open or closed is not saved with the project, so everything reopens expanded.
Range overrides reach plain number parameters. Authoring one on a vector is stored but never drawn, which is consistent with the menu not opening on a vector label in the first place.
Live and external control
A parameter can be driven by more than the mouse. A pinned parameter has a place for a MIDI or OSC binding: a small line under it showing MIDI: CC 21 ch1 or OSC: /pinned/0 (auto), with the (auto) dropped once the address is one you chose, and both lines side by side on a parameter carrying both. There is no way to create either binding today, so that line never appears. The parameter bridge explains what is missing and how a controller reaches a parameter instead. Recording live input covers capturing live input, and Parameter expressions covers driving a value with a formula.
Seven numeric parameters also read their value from an attribute on the node's input, so the value varies per element. A bound parameter shows the attribute name, such as @width, in place of its slider. Alt-click the value to pick an attribute or clear the binding. Connections vs expressions has the full picture, and names the seven.