Re: UI Guidelines: Dialogs

["Michael T. Babcock" <mbabcock cytech on ca>]

> Also, the 'leftmost' (I'm doing it now!) action button should generally
> be the default (operated by the Enter keyboard shortcut, unless there
> are textfields in the dialog), and Cancel should always be operated by
> the Esc keyboard shortcut.

Note: this may seem less intuitive to normal users than to HI 'experts' ...
ESC is on the left of the keyboard, and Enter is on the right.  Newer
computer users (last few years) aren't aware of the concept that Enter
_does_ things (other than enter a carriage return) -- many database users
expect it to go to the next entry field, for example (just as it would on a
typewriter).

> There's always some debate about whether Esc should be the keyboard
> shortcut for the "Close" button, too; my own preference is no, "Close"
> should have a mnemonic instead (e.g. underline the "C").  I suspect
> that's one we could argue about for a while, though...

Nothing should be a shortcut for "get out of here and discard everything I
just did" without an "are you sure" prompt for obvious reasons. -- ESC twice
would then not cancel what you wanted to cancel, for example.