I have a screen where the user has many items to input so screen space is at a premium.
I want the look of the widget on the screen (before the user presses it) t
why don't you go for a dialog with list. According to your requirement, create an edittext field, add setOnFocusChangeListener and then show a dialog with list items in onFocusChange() method. For dialog with list items
new AlertDialog.Builder(this)
.setTitle("")
.setItems(R.array., new DialogInterface.OnClickListener(){
@Override
public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
}}).show();