Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pyrdc!pyrnj!rutgers!apple!lsr From: lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: Centering Dialogs Message-ID: <17588@apple.Apple.COM> Date: 23 Sep 88 06:38:50 GMT References:<10132@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <537@uva.UUCP> <2411@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> Reply-To: lsr@apple.com.UUCP (Larry Rosenstein) Organization: Advanced Technology Group, Apple Computer Lines: 43 In article <2411@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> mikem@uhccux.UUCP (Mike Morton) writes: > >Especially for dialogs invoked with the keyboard (including command-key >equivalents, but also alerts in response to Clear, Backspace, etc.), this >makes the dialog location seem non-deterministic to a user who hasn't >yet psyched out your scheme. ("Look, Irma, now the dang thing's over The short answer to this issue is to do some user testing. Gut feelings are often not correct. Nevertheless, my gut feeling would be that centering it on the window containing the cursor would be confusing until it was explained to the user. I seem to recall a recommendation that alerts appear in a consistent place all the time. (Doesn't Microsoft do this?) I think it would be acceptable to center on the main screen, because that is likely to be a focus of attention since the menu bar is there. Even if the dialog appears as a result of a keyboard command, the user probably will tend to have the main screen right in front of him/herself. This also has the advantage of being easy to do, and consistent with a lot of other programs (since it is easy to do, most programmers are likely to do this). Centering it on the screen containing the active window is a good idea. One problem is that you may end up obscuring the very information that is needed. (The user may have moved the window over there, explicitly to get away from new windows popping up on the main screen.) Conversely, FullWrite places its Spell Checking dialog on a different screen from the document being checked, so as not to obscure anything important. (As someone pointed out, however, if that screen is off, the user is in trouble.) One suggestion that hasn't been mentioned is to let the user choose the position. I tried a demo of a program called JonathanDraw that draw a black rectangle the size of the dialog, and waited for you to click to position it. I found this to be annoying since it required extra work on my part. Fortunately, this was an option that you could customize. Larry Rosenstein, Object Specialist Apple Computer, Inc. 20525 Mariani Ave, MS 46-B Cupertino, CA 95014 AppleLink:Rosenstein1 domain:lsr@Apple.COM UUCP:{sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!lsr