Types of Dialog Boxes

In contrast to Apple Computer, Microsoft distinguishes between dialog boxes and message boxes;⁶⁶ however, this differentiation is debatable in the author's opinion. According to Microsoft, a message box is a secondary window that is designed to inform a user about a particular condition, whereas a dialog box provides an exchange of information or dialog between the user and the application (193, 516). However, both kinds of boxes require the user to supply an answer; the message box in Figure 11, for example, expects the user to confirm that the message has been seen. While the quality of such a "dialog" may be debatable, it is nevertheless a dialog, since both parties make utterances. Therefore, the term dialog box will be used in the following.

 

Figure 11: A MacOS Dialog Box: Warning

Furthermore, Microsoft and Apple Computer distinguish between different types of messages, which include:

• informative messages (note at Apple Computer, see Figure 15),
• warning messages (caution, see Figure 11),
• and critical messages (stop at Apple Computer) like the message displayed in Figure 1 (Microsoft 209-211; Apple Computer Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines 193-196).

Apple Computer further distinguishes between

• modal dialog boxes, which puts the user in the state, or mode, of being able to work only inside the dialog box (Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines 188),
• and modeless dialog boxes, which don't interrupt people's workflow by locking out all other actions but which allow users to change things in their documents, perform actions with the data in their documents, or get information about their documents or applications (178).

Dialog boxes may include controls such as buttons, radio buttons, pop-up menus, and text entry fields.