Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!barmar From: barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin) Subject: Re: Dialog Modality Message-ID: <1991Apr3.001712.25569@Think.COM> Sender: news@Think.COM Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA References: <593@genco.bungi.com> <1991Mar27.121607.9672@maths.tcd.ie> Date: Wed, 3 Apr 91 00:17:12 GMT In article robertk@lotatg.lotus.com (Robert Krajewski) writes: >Well, that's not entirely fair -- would it really make sense for a >standard file dialog to *not* be modal ? Sure it would. In a "Save As" dialog, when I'm typing in the new name, I might want to use operations in the Edit menu to fix what I've entered. A better example would be all the dialogs one has to go through when printing. Suppose you've filled in all the printing parameters in all the dialog boxes, and then realize that you forgot to change something to bold. You have to cancel, make your change, and then go through it again. Why not bring the document window to the top, make the change, bring the printing options dialog back up and click on "OK"? An example where it *was* done right is the "Find" command in most word processors. I would have expected this to be modal, but it generally isn't. -- Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp. barmar@think.com {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar