C H A P T E R 6

Dialogs

A dialog is a window designed to elicit a response from the user. Many dialogs— the Print dialog, for example—permit the user to provide many responses at

one time.

Alerts are dialogs that appear when the system or an application needs to communicate information to the user. They provide messages about error conditions and warn users about potentially hazardous situations or actions.

For information about using the keyboard to interact with dialogs, see “Keyboard Focus and Navigation” (page 182).

For specific design information on how to lay out dialogs, see “Layout Guidelines” (page 149).

For implementation information, Carbon developers should see Handling Carbon Windows and Controls, available on the Mac OS X developer documentation website.

Types of Dialogs and When to Use Them

Mac OS X applications can use these types of dialogs:

■Modeless: Enables users to change settings in a dialog while still interacting with document windows; the “find and replace” feature in many word processors is an example of a modeless dialog. Modeless dialogs have title bar controls (close, minimize, and zoom buttons).