To design a dialog box well, you must consider not only the practical purpose of the box but also its aesthetics, the ergonomics of using it, and the GUI standards of the Windows and Mac OS environments. The following subsections provide some guidelines for GUI design, dialog box design, and predefined tiles and clusters. Refer to About Programmable Dialog Box Function Synopsis (DCL), for more examples of tiles and clusters.
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About Dialog Box Design Guidelines (DCL)
Topics in this section
- About Aesthetics and Ergonomics (DCL)
- About Consistent Design and Clear Language (DCL)
- About Dialog Boxes Compared to Command Line Input (DCL)
Give users some control over how they access the dialog box to enter input. - About Providing Help (DCL)
- About Users With Disabilities (DCL)
Considerations intended for users with disabilities can make a program easier for anyone to use. - About Using Capitalization with Tiles (DCL)
Titles for controls and dialog boxes follow a specific capitalization convention. - About Avoiding Abbreviations (DCL)
- About Layout (DCL)
- About Size and Placement of a Dialog (DCL)
Make a dialog box no larger than necessary and initially place it in the center of the screen. - About Disabling Tiles (DCL)
If a tile or an area is unavailable or irrelevant given the current option settings, disable it immediately so the tile or area is unavailable and the user cannot select it. - About Nested Dialog Boxes (DCL)
Complex features that use dialog boxes will often hide options that are not commonly used from the main dialog, but make then accessible from a nested dialog. - About Handling Keyboard Input (DCL)
When you create a custom dialog box, you can specify how it handles keyboard shortcuts. - About International Language Considerations (DCL)
Words in other languages often require more characters than their English equivalents. - Predefined Tiles and Clusters Reference (DCL)
DCL offers a number of predefined tiles and tile clusters that represent many of the common Windows and Mac OS controls. - About Error Handling in Dialog Boxes (DCL)
Dialog boxes can display error messages and warnings with a text tile known as an error tile (errtile), or with a nested alert box.
Parent topic: About Designing Dialog Boxes (DCL)