If you want to submit your extensions to the Macromedia Exchange (read more on that in Appendix D, "Submitting Extensions to the Macromedia Dreamweaver Exchange"), you won't get a Macromediaapproved rating unless you follow the official User Interface Guidelines for any extensions that include an interactive component (that is, dialog boxes, Property inspectors, floating panels). Even if you're not planning to submit to the Exchange, the guidelines offer good advice on creating interfaces that blend well with the rest of Dreamweaver, work across platforms, and are intuitive to use and difficult to mess up. In addition to the official required guidelines, this appendix looks at some suggested guidelines from Macromedia for writing good extensions. It covers learning about layout; using buttons ; providing help; working with fonts, colors, and graphics; and providing error-checking and bulletproofing. |