Re: Disabling NSTabViewItem
Re: Disabling NSTabViewItem
- Subject: Re: Disabling NSTabViewItem
- From: "Erik M. Buck" <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2002 20:22:02 -0600
- Organization: EMB & Assocites Inc.
A disabled tab prevents users from finding out what options are ever
available. A novice user may be left wondering under what circumstances the
tab becomes available and what they would do with it if it was available.
Keeping all tabs enables but disabling invalid controls within a tab's page
is the "right" thing to do. Users discover all options available to them at
some time even if they are not available now. An advanced user is not
bothered by that tab being enabled when its contents are not because the
advanced user knows under what circumstances the elements for the tab are
enabled and what they do.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Wood" <email@hidden>
To: <email@hidden>
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2002 4:51 PM
Subject: Re: Disabling NSTabViewItem
>
I agree with John's sentiment, but not the end result. A grayed
>
out menu prevents you from choosing a menu that wouldn't do
>
anything other than annoy you with its not being functional.
>
I'd hate to have a lot of enabled menu items that just bring up
>
a dialog box that says "Hey, you shouldn't have chosen this" but
>
with John's suggestion, that's essentially what will happen if
>
you enable a tab, but not make it show anything. The user will
>
be annoyed, because then they will have to switch back to the
>
tab that they were at before. If the tab were grayed out, the
>
same way that a menu item were grayed out, they'd know that
>
there's no point in choosing it, and they will be saved the time
>
wasted in doing so....
>
>
Dan
>
>
>
>
On Wednesday, February 20, 2002, at 07:32 PM, John C. Randolph wrote:
>
>
> On Wednesday, February 20, 2002, at 11:23 AM, Georg Tuparev wrote:
>
>
>
>> Folks,
>
>>
>
>> Is it possible to disable a NSTabViewItem object? I know I can
>
>> remove it temporary from the TabView, and I know that I can
>
>> implement in NSTabView's delegate
>
>>
>
>> - (BOOL)tabView:(NSTabView *)tabView
>
>> shouldSelectTabViewItem:(NSTabViewItem *)tabViewItem method
>
>>
>
>> ... but both option look extremely ugly (at least in my case).
>
>
>
>
>
> Georg,
>
>
>
> Per the "least surprise" principle, I would recommend that you
>
> not disable a Tab, even if everything in that tab is disabled.
>
> You should let the user see what controls exist, even if
>
> they're not pertinent at the moment. You'll notice (for
>
> example) that submenus still open, even if all of their items
>
> are disabled.
>
>
>
> -jcr
>
>
>
>
>
> John C. Randolph <email@hidden> (408) 974-8819
>
> Sr. Cocoa Software Engineer,
>
> Apple Worldwide Developer Relations
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
>
--
>
Dan Wood
>
Karelia Software, LLC
>
email@hidden
>
http://www.karelia.com/
>
Watson for Mac OS X: http://www.karelia.com/watson/
>
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