jgro@biosys.apldbio.com (Jeremy Grodberg) (08/04/90)
I asked the Apple Human interface group about the question posed here a short while back: "Should the outline around the default button in a dialog be dimmed when the button is dimmed?" The official answer: Yes! The outline should be dimmed when the button is dimmed (such as before a user enters any characters in a particular entry field). The outline around the default button is considered part of the button. Also, the outline and button should be dimmed when another window comes up in front of the dialog. Note that even a modal dialog window may find itself partially covered when an alert box comes up in front of it. For exampe, do a Save As... and write over an existing file. You get the alert "Replace file with same name?" (or whatever) in front of the Save As... dialog. In applications which draw a border around the Save button, this leads to 2 default buttons being displayed at the same time, one in each window. Dimming the button and outline is meant to prevent this confusing situation. In system 7, the default modal dialog proc will work as described above. Also, the inner border around the modal dialog window will dim when the window is not front-most, to help keep clear which dialog is active. -- Jeremy Grodberg jgro@apldbio.com "Beware: free advice is often overpriced!"
mnykanen@cc.helsinki.fi (08/06/90)
In article <26401@usc.edu>, jgro@biosys.apldbio.com (Jeremy Grodberg) writes: > I asked the Apple Human interface group about the question posed here a > short while back: "Should the outline around the default button in a > dialog be dimmed when the button is dimmed?" > > The official answer: Yes! The outline should be dimmed when the button is > dimmed (such as before a user enters any characters in a particular entry > field). The outline around the default button is considered part of the > button. An aside: what exactly are the semantics of a default that is not applicable by default? :-) -- Matti Nyk{nen CS Student at Helsinki U, Finland email: mnykanen@cc.helsinki.FI The best opinions available; get them while they're hot!