Apple's HIG explains it likes this:
"At a minimum, you should display an insertion point in the one
of the edit text fields (usually the first field) when the
dialog box is opened."
<http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/HIGOS8Guide/thig-46.html#HEADING46
-0>
The HIG does not mention list fields per se, but based on examples in the
OS and in their "example application", AppleWorks, the principle seems
consistently applied to those field types as well.
Like Scott Rossi and Jacque, I've had situations where I've had to break
from convention to present a list with nothing selected. And like them,
I found that putting another dummy field offscreen, however odd this may
sound, satisfies this unconventional need at least as effectively as the
types of kludges we've had to use in other tools to get _conventional_
behavior. :)
- Richard Gaskin
Fourth World
Multimedia Design and Development for Mac, Windows, UNIX, and the Web
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