Popup Screens

Popup screens (also known as dialog boxes) of all different sizes are often displayed within SAP application windows. Some appear in response to an action by you or a command from you to the system, and others appear automatically when the system wants to communicate information to you.

Popup screens can be informational, interrogatory, or procedural in their purpose.

Informational popup screens (Figure I.24) display a message from the system and require only that you acknowledge that message by clicking an Enter button (which usually appears at its bottom) or hitting the Enter key on your keyboard. Such popup screens are generally small, given their limited function, and they appear without a specific command on your part.

Figure I.24. An informational popup screen.

Interrogatory popup screens (Figure I.25) display questions from the system in response to some action on your part and require some response from you. For example, when you try to log off the system (see Lesson 1), the system displays a popup screen that asks you to confirm or cancel that action with the Yes and No buttons. Such popup screens are also generally small.

Figure I.25. A query popup screen.

Procedural popup screens allow you to conduct certain procedures outside the central work area of screens. For example, you can control the display in the central work area of the SAP Easy Access screen with a procedural popup screen (Figure I.26), which you can call up by following the menu path Extras > Settings on that screen. Procedural popup screens are medium to large in size and fairly complex in their composition, often containing their own toolbar (which usually runs along their bottoms), tabbed subscreens, and other screen elements.

Figure I.26. A procedural popup screen.

The name of a popup screen is always displayed in a blue title bar across its top (Figure I-26A). This bar also contains a control button at its right end (B) that you can click to erase the screen. You will also find a button for this purpose, along with other command buttons, in a toolbar at the bottom of a procedural popup screen (C).