Configuration Command Interface

You also need to consider where the configuration commands appear in the user interface. Should you put all the configuration options in a single property sheet that is accessed from a single Options menu? Alternatively, should you have separate menu options for each type of configuration, such as Search Options, View Options, Format Options, and so forth? With the exception of Print Setup, which is always separate by convention, I don't like the separate menu option approach at all. When I want to set options, I want to set options—and I don't want to figure out which type of options I want to set beforehand. I want all the settings to be in one place. Separate configurations result in a kind of configuration safari, where you have to hunt down the right command. Visual C++, for example, includes three configuration commands: Project | Settings, Tools | Customize, and Tools | Options. I use Visual C++ a lot, but I make more mistakes trying to figure out which configuration command to use than I make using all the other Visual C++ commands combined.

The user should also be able to set the options for a specific item by displaying its Properties property sheet from the item's context menu. Sometimes it's also handy to be able to access a Properties property sheet directly from a dialog box. For example, in Word, you can access the Spelling & Grammar property sheet directly from the Spelling And Grammar dialog box by clicking the Options button. This approach is especially convenient for modal dialog boxes; otherwise, the user would have to dismiss the modal dialog box, change the options, and then redisplay the modal dialog box.

The contents of the main Options property sheet can consist mostly of property pages for the individual objects in the program. I like this approach when it makes sense—it doesn't make sense if there are too many configurable items—because it allows the user to find, change, and review all the settings from a single location.



Developing User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows
Developing User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows
ISBN: 0735605866
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 334

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