Re: Standard presenation

[Scott McClare <smcclare -at- DY4 -dot- COM>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Posada [SMTP:jposada01 -at- YAHOO -dot- COM]
> Sent: Thursday, April 22, 1999 10:43 AM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      Standard presenation
>
> I'm documenting version 1.0 of an application that is
> going out to our users in about a month.
>
[snip]

> One of the things that has been nagging at me is this.
>
> In most applications, when you issue a command that
> generates a dialog box with [yes] or [no] buttons, is
> it customary to also include a [cancel] button or is
> this on a case-by-case basis?
>
Case by case, because it depends on what the possible choices are.

For example, if you try to exit Word with unsaved pages pending, you get a
dialog box asking if you want to save them first.  The choices are:

Yes - save the changes, then exit
No - don't save the changes, exit anyway
Cancel - oops, I don't really want to exit

As you can see, it's not a clear yes/no situation, and it really requires
the option to back out without doing anything.  OTOH, when you tried to quit
Windows 3.x, you got a box with "This will end Windows [OK] [Cancel]."  The
choices here *were* really only binary - you either left, or you didn't.
You could just as easily have called these buttons "yes" and "no," "Slay
Windows" and "Cower in Fear," and so on.

I personally like to see "Cancel" buttons, as it does reassure me that I can
back out without committing myself to any action if I discover I don't know
which *other* choice I want to make.  However, if the only possible choices
are "do it" and "don't do it," then there's no real need - the cancel will
be redundant.

Take care,

Scott

--
Scott McClare - Technical Writer
DY 4 Systems Inc., Kanata, Ontario, Canada
(613) 599-9199 x502 smcclare -at- dy4 -dot- com
Opinions are my own

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