Re: UI Guidelines: Dialogs

[Calum Benson <calum benson ireland sun com>]

David Grega wrote:
> 
> How about a rule that when a user is entering data into a single-line text
> box (where the enter key serves basically no purpose), if the user presses
> enter, it is treated as if the user pressed the tab key.  Many times, when
> you're entering data, you are filling in single-line fields.  If you have a
> multiple-line field, the enter key would simply have to be treated as a
> carriage return.

Yes, that's probably a reasonable sort of rule.  (I forget off the top
of my head what the Mac and Windows styleguides recommend, it may be
just that, in fact.)

Even that rule has its exceptions, though, e.g. if the dialog only
contains a single text field and OK/Cancel buttons (such as a "rename
file" dialog).  Then you'd probably just want to type into the field,
press Enter and have the dialog disappear immediately (i.e have Enter
activate the "OK" button)...

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson ireland sun com    Desktop Engineering Group
http://www.sun.ie                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems