If you want to know when user typed something into the TextBox, or TextArea use KeyDownHandler.
This comes useful when you want to update the SAVE status, or COUNT characters for Twitter (140) or SMS (160).
final TextBox textBox = new TextBox();
textBox.setStyleName("recipe_edit_width");
textBox.setText(currentRecipe.getName());
recipeName.add(textBox);
textBox.addKeyDownHandler(new KeyDownHandler()
{
public void onKeyDown(KeyDownEvent event)
{
isSaved = false;
currentRecipe.setName(textBox.getText());
updateSaveStatus();
}
});