Consider using progressive disclosure or tabs. Don't have a menu bar or status bar. Instead, provide access to commands and status directly on the dialog box itself, or by using context menus on the relevant controls. If a dialog box requires immediate attention and the program isn't active, flash its taskbar button three times to draw attention, and leave it highlighted.
Don't do anything else: don't restore or activate the window and don't play any sound effects. Instead, respect the user's window state selection and let the user activate the window when ready. For more guidelines and examples, see Taskbar. The input page is optional because the task may have been initiated somewhere else.
Doing so gives the resulting experience a stable, simple, lightweight feel. To make dialog boxes easy to find and access, clearly associate the dialog with its source, and work well with multiple monitors:. In this example, Windows Media Player changes its format when the window becomes too small for the standard format. For more information and examples, see Window Management.
When displayed, user initiated dialog boxes should always take input focus. Program initiated dialog boxes shouldn't take input focus because the user may be interacting with another window. Such interaction misdirected at the dialog box may have unintended consequences.
Assign initial input focus to the control that users are most likely to interact with first , which is usually but not always the first interactive control. Avoid assigning initial input focus to a Help link. For keyboard navigation, tab order should flow in a logical order, generally from left to right, top to bottom. Usually tab order follows reading order, but consider making these exceptions:. When assigning order, assume that users display dialog boxes for their intended purpose; so, for example, users display choice dialogs to make choices, not to review and click Cancel.
Pressing the Esc key always closes an active dialog box. This is true for dialog boxes with Cancel or Close, and even if Cancel has been renamed to Close because the results can no longer be undone. Whenever possible, assign unique access keys to all interactive controls or their labels. Read-only text boxes are interactive controls because users can scroll them and copy text so they benefit from access keys.
Don't assign access keys to:. OK, Cancel, and Close buttons. Enter and Esc are used for their access keys. However, always assign an access key to a control that means OK or Cancel, but has a different label.
Group labels. Normally, the individual controls within a group are assigned access keys, so the group label doesn't need one. However, if there is a shortage of access keys, assign an access key to the group label and not the individual controls. Link labels. There are often too many links to assign unique access keys, and the underscores often used to signify links hide the access key underscores.
Access links with the Tab key instead. Browse buttons labeled " These Browse buttons can't be assigned access keys uniquely. Unlabeled controls, such as spin controls, graphic command buttons, and unlabeled progressive disclosure controls. Non-label static text or labels for controls that aren't interactive, such as progress bars.
Whenever possible, assign access keys for commonly used commands according to the Standard Access Key Assignments.
While consistent access key assignments aren't always possible, they are certainly preferred especially for frequently used dialog boxes. Assign commit button access keys first to ensure that they have the standard key assignments.
If there isn't a standard key assignment, use the first letter of the first word. For example, the access key for Yes and No commit buttons should always be "Y" and "N", regardless of the other controls in the dialog box.
To make access keys easy to find, assign the access keys to a character that appears early in the label, ideally the first character, even if there is a keyword that appears later in the label. Avoid using characters that make the underline difficult to see, such as from most problematic to least problematic :. For more guidelines and examples, see Keyboard. For long-running tasks, assume that users will do something else while the task is completing. Design the task to run unattended.
In this example, Windows Explorer allows users to continue with the task after a recoverable error. Don't use a notification for completion feedback. Use either a progress dialog or an action success notification , but not both. This compact format shows the most important information first so that it isn't truncated on the taskbar. For more information and examples, see Progress Bars. It can be hidden by other application windows.
A document-modal dialog is used in modern versions of macOS X , and in some applications such as Opera. Instead of appearing in its own window, the dialog is presented as a "sheet" attached to the window.
While it is open, a document-modal dialog locks the user out of the parent document window, but other document windows in the application can still be used. Sign up. Term of the Day. Best of Techopedia weekly. News and Special Offers occasional. Dialog Box. Techopedia Explains Dialog Box. What Does Dialog Box Mean? Techopedia Explains Dialog Box The dialog box is usually invoked by a program to enable reciprocal communication with the user or if a user invokes a function for which input is required.
See the full definition for dialog box in the English Language Learners Dictionary. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Log in Sign Up.
Save Word. Definition of dialog box. Examples of dialog box in a Sentence Recent Examples on the Web Within the same dialog box , find the option to Override the colors specified by the page with your selections above, click it to open a drop-down menu, and set it to Always. First Known Use of dialog box , in the meaning defined above.
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