Re: [g-a-devel] How to indicate disabled state

["Peter Parente" <parente gmail com>]

> In this case, the toolbar has the SENSITIVE state and is not grayed.

Good. Now, look at a Firefox paragraph or other element inside a
webpage that is not interactive and compare it with an element that is
interactive but currently grayed.

Pete

On 3/2/07, Willie Walker <William Walker sun com> wrote:
> Thanks!  These help.  Let's focus on the SENSITIVE state as a means to
> do what you want.  I verified all these examples using at-poke.
>
> > 1) The user tabs to the Close button in the gedit settings dialog. In
> > this case, we might say the name of the button, the role of the
> > button, and the mnemonic for the button.
> >
>
> In this case, it is not grayed and it is SENSITIVE.
>
> > 2) The user reviews to a grayed out menu item in gedit. In this case,
> > we might say the name of the menu item, the role of the menu item, and
> > the word "disabled" to indicate that the menu item is not currently
> > active. We want to say "disabled" here to inform the user that this
> > menu item could potentially become enabled for regular interaction by
> > changing the state of the program (e.g. inserting some new text in a
> > document enables the Save menu item).
> >
>
> Let's take the "Revert" menu item, which is grayed until you make
> changes to a file that you've saved or read in.  The "Revert" menu item
> doesn't have the SENSITIVE state until you make a change to the contents
> on the screen.  As soon as you make a change, it gets the SENSITIVE
> state and is ungrayed.
>
> > 3) The user reviews to the toolbar in the gedit main window. In this
> > case, we might say the text on the toolbar and its role. However, we
> > do not want to say "disabled" because this the toolbar is never
> > technically enabled for interaction. That is, we do not want the user
> > thinking it could be enabled for interaction by changing the state of
> > the program (e.g. nothing I do in the program will ever enable/disable
> > the toolbar such that I can interact with it).
> >
>
> In this case, the toolbar has the SENSITIVE state and is not grayed.
>
> Hope this helps, (and I'm sure you have some  "but, yeah, what about
> this" questions ;-)),
>
> Will