Doing so unnecessarily can be very annoying. For more guidelines and examples, see Confirmations. Right-align commit buttons in a single row across the bottom of the dialog box, but above the footnote area. Do this even if there is a single commit button such as OK. Have a clear separation from commit buttons which close the window and all other command buttons such as Advanced. Users should be able to understand the options by reading the button text alone.
Use Close for dialogs that don't have settings, such as informational dialogs. Never use Close for dialogs that have settings. Use OK when changing a specific setting or a collection of settings. For legacy dialog boxes without a main instruction, you can use generic labels such as OK. Often such dialog boxes aren't designed to perform a specific task, preventing more specific responses.
Certain tasks require more thought and careful reading for users to make informed decisions. This is usually the case with confirmations. In such cases, you can purposely use generic commit button labels to force users to read the main instructions and prevent hasty decisions. Alternatively, you can add the word "anyway" to the positive commit button label to indicate that the dialog box presents a reason not to proceed and that users should read the dialog carefully before proceeding.
In this example, "anyway" is added to the commit button label to indicate that users should proceed carefully. Use Cancel or Close for negative commit buttons instead of specific responses to the main instruction.
Quite often users realize that they don't want to perform a task once they see a dialog box. If Cancel or Close were relabeled to specific responses, users would have to carefully read all the commit buttons to determine how to cancel.
Labeling Cancel and Close consistently makes them easy to find. Don't map generic labels to their specific meaning with text in the content area. Instead, use specific commit button labels, or a question dialog using links if the labels are lengthy. Prefer specific responses to Yes and No buttons. While there's nothing wrong with using Yes and No, specific responses can be understood more quickly, resulting in efficient decision making. However, confirmations usually have Yes and No buttons to make users give the confirmation some thought before responding.
Use Yes and No buttons only to respond to yes or no questions. The main instruction should be naturally expressed as a yes or no question.
Never use OK and Cancel for yes or no questions. In these examples, Yes and No are good responses to yes and no questions, but specific responses are even better. Consider phrasing the main instruction as a yes or no question if commit buttons with specific phrasing turn out to be long or awkward.
Alternatively, you can use command links for longer responses five words or more to the main instruction. The specific phrasing in the incorrect example is too long, so the correct example uses Yes and No. Don't use Yes and No buttons if the meaning of the No response is unclear. If so, use specific responses instead. In modal dialogs, clicking OK means apply the values, perform the task, and close the window. Don't assign access keys to OK, because Enter is the access key for the default button.
Doing so makes the other access keys easier to assign. Don't use OK buttons for errors or warnings. Problems are never OK. Use Close instead. Don't use OK buttons in modeless dialog boxes. Rather, modeless dialogs should use task-specific commit buttons for example, Find. However, some modeless dialog boxes require only a Close button. Clicking Cancel means abandon all changes, cancel the task, close the window, and return the environment to its previous state, leaving no side effect.
For nested choice dialog boxes, clicking Cancel in the owner choice dialog means any changes made by owned choice dialogs are also abandoned. Provide a Cancel button to let users explicitly abandon changes. Dialog boxes need a clear exit point. Don't depend on users finding the Close button on the title bar.
In this example, having only a Close button on the title bar makes it appear as though users don't have a choice. Don't assign access keys to Cancel, because Esc is the access key. Don't disable the Cancel button. Users should always be able to cancel dialog boxes. Don't use Apply buttons in dialog boxes that aren't property sheets or control panels. The Apply button means apply the pending changes, but leave the window open. Doing so allows users to evaluate the changes before closing the window.
However, only property sheet and control panels have this need. Note: Indirect dialog boxes are displayed out of context, either as an indirect result of a task or the result of a problem with a system or background process. For indirect dialogs, the Cancel button is ambiguous because it could mean cancel the dialog or cancel the entire task.
If users need to both cancel the dialog box and the task, give commit buttons to do both. Label the button that cancels the dialog box with a negative response to the main instruction.
Label the button that cancels the entire task with Cancel. Using Cancel allows the dialog box to be used in many contexts. In this example, this dialog box is displayed by Windows Paint as the result of a New or Exit command when the graphic hasn't been saved. Don't Save closes the dialog without saving, whereas Cancel cancels the New or Exit command. In this example, there is no way to cancel the task closing Office Shortcut Bar that led to displaying this dialog box.
This dialog box needs a Cancel button. If users just need to cancel the dialog but not the task, use a button with a specific, negative response to the main instruction, and don't have a Cancel button. In this example, this dialog box is displayed indirectly as the result of navigating to a Web page that installs an ActiveX control. Using Cancel would be ambiguous here, so Don't run is used instead. For more information and examples, see Command Buttons.
Search Guides Search. Remote Digital Championing! Find out more. Most read guides. What is Android? What is a computer? What is a PC? See more guides ». Newest guides. Setting up devices and troubleshooting remotely. Hosting a Zoom meeting. When a user selects "Open When "Save As While dialog boxes may not seem too exciting, they provide an intuitive way to communicate with the computer and are an essential part of today's computer interfaces.
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