Chip, Also, just because GW does it a certain way doesn't mean it's the only option. I would likely have a preferences option under Edit or Tools in my menu structure to handle things like this. I can still link the dialog to the WE menus plus have it available from my app where I'd expect it. If I'm in a mainstream app, I look for options or preferences under tools, edit, file, etc. I wouldn't think to look under help.
Best Regards, J.J. Meddaugh A T Guys Your Assistive Technology Experts (269) 216-4798 http://www.ATGuys.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Chip Orange To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 8:48 PM Subject: RE: a "best practices" question Hi Aaron, I will, in order to be consistent, do it as you suggest if that seems to be the overall opinion. However, I find dialogs of controls (especially large ones) more confusing than menus usually, and harder to go into and make a change to one setting than to do that in a set of menus, where it's easier to find the particular item you seek. However, Vic points out it's harder to change many settings at once. I also don't like going into a dialog via a "help" choice, only to have to choose another "help" button to get to the help. I wish here the standard help dialog gave us an option to add an "options" button which would lead to the configuration dialog. Also, I do this just because I start out with a menu with a couple of options to turn on/off, and then I keep adding to it until it turns into menus 2 or 3 levels deep with a dozen options. But if I'm to redesign things, I wanted to do it in a consistent way, and a way most people found the easiest to use. thanks. Chip ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Aaron Smith [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 9:24 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: a "best practices" question On 5/21/2011 6:13 PM, Chip Orange wrote: Now, I find myself usually designing my app interfaces so that all configuration options are controlled via the app menu entry (and it's submenus), so I can leave the help dialog managed as a standard help dialog by the help dialog object. Why not have one dialog that provides configuration options, along with a help button that will launch the standard help dialog? That dialog will then get called regardless of whether the user select the Help and Options button, or the configuration option in the app's menu entry. The Progress Indicator script demonstrates how this should be done. Aaron -- Aaron Smith Web Development * App Development * Product Support Specialist GW Micro, Inc. * 725 Airport North Office Park, Fort Wayne, IN 46825 260-489-3671 * gwmicro.com To insure that you receive proper support, please include all past correspondence (where applicable), and any relevant information pertinent to your situation when submitting a problem report to the GW Micro Technical Support Team.
