Full selectors:

• Contain all the elements needed to identify a UI element, including the top-level window
• Generated by the Basic recorder
• Recommended when switching between multiple windows

Partial selectors:

• Generated by the Desktop recorder
• Do not contain information about the top-level window
• Activities containing partial selectors are enclosed in a container (Attach Browser or Attach Window) that contains a full selector of the top-level window
• Recommended when performing multiple actions in the same window

Example of a partial selector for the editable panel in Notepad:

Example of a full selector for the editable panel in Notepad:

Selector Editor and UI Explorer display the full selector, not just the partial one. However, only elements belonging to the partial selector can be edited, the prepended ones are grayed out and read-only.