home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
| Text File | 1990-02-21 | 13.4 KB | 259 lines | [TEXT/pdos] |
- Human Interface Notes
- _____________________________________________________________________________
-
- Note #6 Window Positions
-
- Written by: John Sullivan January 1990
- _____________________________________________________________________________
-
- Whenever a window is displayed on the screen, the application must make a
- decision about its size and location. If a user moved the window in an
- earlier session, then it should be restored to its previous position;
- otherwise, the application must choose an appropriate default position.
- This document gives details about making these decisions.
- _____________________________________________________________________________
-
- Saving and restoring window positions
-
- Users change the locations and sizes of windows for a reason. They might want
- to view two documents side by side, or they might want to display a window
- on a larger monitor so that more of it can be seen at once. They might want
- to display only the interesting area of the window, which may be quite
- small, or they might want to position the window in such a way that certain
- icons on the desktop are still visible. In any case, one of the most
- important principles of a good interface is that the user is in control,
- so applications must respect the user's reasoning by reopening each window
- in the same location and with the same size that the user left it.
-
- Here is a simple, but effective, procedure for saving and restoring window
- positions:
-
- 1. When opening a new window, put it in the default
- position (see the next section of this document for
- details about determining the default position).
-
- 2. Before closing a movable window, check to see if
- its location or size have changed. If so, save the
- new location and size. If the window can be
- zoomed, save the user state and also save whether
- or not the window is in the zoomed (standard)
- state. Note that if the window corresponds to a
- Finder document and there were no other changes to
- the document, the new location and size should be
- saved without changing the modification date of the
- document.
-
- Note: If the location and size of a
- movable window have not changed, do not
- save them, because the default location
- and size may be different the next time
- the window is opened (e.g., if the window
- is reopened on a different Macintosh with
- a different screen size).
-
- 3. When reopening a movable window, check its saved
- position. If the window is in a position to which
- the user could have dragged it, then leave it
- there. If the window can be zoomed and was in the
- zoomed state when it was last closed, put it in the
- zoomed state again. (Note that the current and
- previous zoomed states are not necessarily the
- same, since the window may be reopened on a
- different monitor.) If the window is not in a
- position to which the user could have dragged it,
- then it must be relocated, so use the default
- location. However, do not automatically use the
- default size when using the default location; if
- the entire window would be visible using the
- default location and the stored size, then use the
- stored size.
-
- Remember that checking to see if the saved position is reasonable before
- reopening the window is a necessary part of this procedure, not an option.
- When an application opens windows outside of the visible space, users tend
- to switch to competitors' products.
-
-
- Choosing a default window position
-
- The appropriate default position of a window may depend upon several
- factors, including whether the window is a document window or an alert,
- the locations of other open windows, the user's center of attention, and
- whether or not the window contains information that is closely related to
- other open windows. The rest of this document includes a series of
- default window position examples for several common cases. Developers should
- consider how their particular situations relate to these common ones to
- determine the best default positioning. In any case, the default position of
- any window must never overlap multiple screens, as this can look and
- feel very strange with monitors of different depth and resolution.
-
- Independent document windows, single screen
-
- On a single screen the first document window should be positioned in the
- upper-left region of the gray area of the screen. Each additional window
- should be staggered slightly below and to the right of its predecessor, if
- no windows are moved or closed. When a window is moved or closed, its
- original position becomes available again. The next window opened should
- use this position. Similarly, if a window is moved onto a previously-
- available position, that position becomes unavailable again.
- Figure 1 illustrates independent document windows on a single screen.
- _________________________________
- ||-------------------------------||
- ||@ File Edit Window ||
- ||-------------------------------||
- ||###__________________##########||
- ||##|-----Addendum-----|#########||
- ||##|==================|#########||
- ||####___________________########||
- ||####|-----Addendum-----|#######||
- ||####|==================|#######||
- ||######__________________#######||
- ||######|-----Addendum-----|#####||
- ||######|==================|#####||
- ||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|+|#####||
- ||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|-|#####||
- ||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |#####||
- ||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |#####||
- ||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|_|#####||
- ||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|-|#####||
- ||######|+|//////////////|-|#####||
- ||######|------------------|#####||
- ||===============================||
-
- Figure 1-Independent document window positions
-
- Independent document windows, multiple screens
-
- The first document window should be positioned in the upper-
- left region of the gray area of the main screen (the screen
- with the menu bar). Each additional independent window
- should be staggered from the upper-left of the screen that
- contains the largest portion of the frontmost window. Thus,
- if the user starts the application, creates a single window,
- drags that window over to a secondary monitor, and then
- creates a second window, the second window and subsequent
- windows should appear on the secondary monitor. Figure 2
- illustrates independent document windows on multiple screens.
- _________________________________
- ||-------------------------------||
- ||@ File Edit Window ||
- ||-------------------------------||
- ||######__________________#######||
- ||######|-----Addendum-----|#####||
- ||######|==================|#####||
- ||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|+|#####||
- ||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |#####||
- ________________________||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |#####||
- ||----------------------|||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |#####||
- ||@ File Edit Window |||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |#####||
- ||----------------------|||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |#####||
- ||############__________|||______|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |#####||
- ||############|_________|||______|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |#####||
- ||############|\\\\\\\\\|||\\\\\\|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |#####||
- ||############|\\\\\\\\\|||\\\\\\|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |#####||
- ||############|\\\\\\\\\|||\\\\\\|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|_|#####||
- ||############|\\\\\\\\\|||\\\\\\|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|-|#####||
- ||############|\\\\\\\\\|||\\\\\\|+|//////////////|-|#####||
- ||############|\\\\\\\\\|||\\\\\\|------------------|#####||
- ||======================|||===============================||
-
- Figure 2-Independent document window positions on multiple screens
-
- Child windows
-
- A child window is a window that contains more detail about part of
- another window. For instance, in ResEdit a window showing all string
- resources of a given file is a child of the window showing all resource
- types for that file. Child windows of visible parent windows should be
- created just below and to the right of the parent window. Figure 3
- illustrates child windows.
- _________________________________
- ||-------------------------------||
- ||@ File Edit Window ||
- ||-------------------------------||
- ||###__________________##########||
- ||##|-----Resources----|#########||
- ||##|==================|#########||
- ||####___________________########||
- ||####|-----Directory----|#######||
- ||####|==================|#######||
- ||######___________________######||
- ||######|------Index-------|#####||
- ||######|==================|#####||
- ||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|+|#####||
- ||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|-|#####||
- ||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |#####||
- ||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |#####||
- ||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\| |#####||
- ||######|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|-|#####||
- ||######|+|//////////////|-|#####||
- ||######|------------------|#####||
- ||===============================||
-
- Figure 3 - Child Windows
-
- Alert or dialog box, single screen
-
- Alerts or dialog boxes should be centered horizontally and positioned
- vertically such that one-third of the remaining vertical gray screen
- space is above the window and the other two-thirds are below.
- Figure 4 shows a typical alert.
- _____________________________________
- ||-----------------------------------||
- ||@ File Edit Window ||
- ||-----------------------------------||
- ||###################################||
- ||###################################||
- ||###################################||
- ||####_______________________########||
- ||####|======================|#######||
- ||####|This application only |#######||
- ||####|runs in 64-bit color |#######||
- ||####| __________ |#######||
- ||####| / OK \ |#######||
- ||####| \__________/ |#######||
- ||####|______________________|#######||
- ||###################################||
- ||###################################||
- ||-----------------------------------||
-
- Figure 4 - Alert
-
- Alert or dialog box, multiple screens
-
- This case is similar to the previous one, except that the alert or
- dialog box should be drawn on the screen closest to the user's center
- of attention. Always putting an alert or dialog box on the screen
- containing the cursor is a good rule of thumb. An even better rule is
- to use the screen on which the last user action took place. For instance,
- if the user is typing into a word processing document and presses
- Command-O, put the standard file dialog box on the same screen as the
- word processing document. When an alert or dialog box appears in response
- to the user selecting a menu item with the mouse, put the alert or dialog
- box on the screen with the menu bar. Figure 5 shows an alert in a two-
- screen configuration.
- ________________________________
- ||------------------------------||
- ||@ File Edit Window ||
- ||------------------------------||
- ||#####__________________#######||
- ||#####|-----Addendum----|######||
- ||#####|=================|######||
- ||#####|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|+|######||
- ||##________________________####||
- ________________________||##|----------------------|####||
- ||----------------------|||##| Your computer just |####||
- ||@ File Edit Window |||##| exploded. Please |####||
- ||----------------------|||##| run for cover. |####||
- ||######################|||##| ====== |####||
- ||######################|||##| // OK \\ |####||
- ||######################|||##| \\ // |####||
- ||######################|||##| ====== |####||
- ||######################|||##|----------------------|####||
- ||######################|||####|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|######||
- ||######################|||####|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|######||
- ||######################|||##############################||
- ||======================|||==============================||
-
- Figure 5 - Alert on multiple screens
-
