Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!tekig5!tekig4!bradn
From: bradn@tekig4.TEK.COM (Bradford Needham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Highlight "OK" buttons
Keywords: Dialogs
Message-ID: <3186@tekig4.TEK.COM>
Date: 8 Sep 88 02:47:58 GMT
References: <3316@homxc.UUCP> <16727@apple.Apple.COM> <27471@think.UUCP>
Reply-To: bradn@tekig4.TEK.COM (Bradford Needham)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.
Lines: 26

In article <27471@think.UUCP> ephraim@vidar.think.com.UUCP (ephraim vishniac) writes:
>...That's how you *draw* the highlighting, which is only a partial answer
>to the question of how you highlight a button....

I used to avoid highlighting default buttons because it seemed so complex.
Now I let the Dialog Manager handle button highlighting.  Here's how:

	In MacDraw, draw a thick-lined round-cornered rectangle.
	Select the rectangle and copy it to the clipboard.

	In ResEdit, paste your clipboard into a new PICT resource.
	Create a new PICT element in your dialog, giving your newly created
	PICT as the resource to show.
	Edit the rectangle of the new dialog element so it outlines
	your default button.
    
	Now when you display the dialog, the Dialog Manager will draw the
	PICT rectangle that outlines your default button.

Since this method relys solely on resource modification,
it needs no special handling at run-time.  You can even add default
highlighting to a dialog without recompiling your program.


Brad Needham
bradn@tekig4.TEK.COM