Recommended Reading

• Capucciati, Maria R. "Putting Your Best Face Forward: Designing an Effective User Interface." Microsoft Systems Journal, February 1993.

  Presents a good discussion of basic design principles and gives several examples of how not to design a dialog box.

• Cooper, Alan. About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., 1995.

  Chapter 21, "Dialog Boxes," and Chapter 22, "Dialog Box Etiquette," present a good discussion on how to design dialog boxes and tell you specifically what to check to make sure you have done it right.

• Microsoft Corporation. Designing for the User Experience. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 1999.

  See the information on secondary windows for a good discussion of navigation, default buttons, and validation of input, property sheets, and common dialogs.

• Prosise, Jeff. Programming Windows with MFC, Second Edition. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 1999.

  Chapter 8, "Dialog Boxes and Property Sheets" (in the section "The Dialog Box Keyboard Interface"), includes a discussion of dialog box keyboard navigation.