Apple 2 manual 15Dismissing slips that complete actions

C H A P T E R 2

Container Views

Movable slips should have matte borders, and stationary slips should not. For instance, routing slips are stationary and have special striped borders. Border styles are described in “View Border” on page 2-6.

A slip contains text and controls and may contain icons, pictures, and input fields. Each slip contains some text to indicate the purpose of the slip and what caused the slip to appear. In some cases this text is a title for the slip.

Most slips have a Close box or large Close box in the bottom right corner, and some slips have additional primary controls at the bottom. For instance, a Close box alone is not enough in a slip whose purpose is to prepare for and initiate an action. In this case users must be presented with a choice for dismissing the slip: take action or cancel. A text button named with a verb such as Do or Find clearly means “Take this action with the settings I’ve made in this slip.” A large Close box located next to one of those take-action buttons thus means “Ignore these settings and cancel the action.” The alternative combination of buttons—a text button named Cancel to mean “cancel” next to a large Close box to mean “take action”—is ambiguous. Figure 2-15 compares these two alternatives.

Figure 2-15Dismissing slips that complete actions

Better— Clear choice

Take specific action

Close (don’t take action)

Worse—

Vague choice

Cancel

Close (take action?)

2-16 Auxiliary Views