RE: property dialogs

[Paul Hepworth <phepworth s-vision com>]

>   Tom> One question: should the "Apply" and "OK" buttons apply all the
>   Tom> changes, or just the changes from the current page?  The
>   Tom> desktop properties programs do the latter.  At first I thought
>   Tom> this was a good idea, but now I'm concerned that it is
>   Tom> potentially confusing.
> 
> Well, this is just a top of the head idea, but.. 
> 
> The 'nice' way to do it would be to have reset/apply/OK buttons which
> operate on the current page, then if the user tries to change pages
> with unapplied/unsaved changes, alert them to the fact, and offer to
> let them save/apply/discard changes, or cancel the page change. It
> would keep them from getting confused about what changes they had
> made, which were still pending (out of sight, out of mind &c) and also 
> prevent them from not applying/saving changes they meant to.
> 
I suggest Apply does only the current page.  An "Apply All" button does all
pages.  Ok should really be labeled "Apply and Close."
Rather than prompting when a page is changed, prompt if "Apply and Close" is
pressed with unapplied changes on other than the current page (e.g. "Also
apply modifications from other pages?  Y/N")
Also, make sure to include an Undo button (to undo the apply (i.e. undo to
the state before apply was pressed)) and a "Defaults" button.  Make sure
Undo will undo Defaults and itself, too.


Paul