- #Creating a drop down date menu in excel 2008 for mac how to#
- #Creating a drop down date menu in excel 2008 for mac windows#
Snagit: Gradient and Tolerance options are grayed out to indicate that they cannot be selected when the No Fill option is chosen. If disabled items are removed, the interface loses spatial consistency and becomes harder to learn.
For extra UX credit, consider showing a short balloon help message if users hover over a grayed-out option for more than a second, explaining why that option is disabled and how to make it active.
Gray out any unavailable options instead of removing them: any items that cannot be selected should remain in view. ITunes: The View menu contains different options depending on whether the Albums (left) or the Songs (right) option is selected in the Library side menu. Users get very confused when options come and go, and it is often hard to make a desired option visible when it depends on a selection in a different widget. Avoid interacting menus, wherein the options in one menu change when users select something in another menu on the same page. To that end, here are some design guidelines for dropdowns: And, when used in forms and for attribute selection, dropdown boxes prevent users from entering erroneous data, since they only show legal choices.ĭespite these advantages, web usability would increase if designers used dropdowns less often. Because they are a standard widget (even if an unpleasant one), users know how to deal with them. Guidelines for Dropdown Designĭropdowns do have their advantages. In fact, the Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines explicitly recommends to not use dropdown menus for commands. Although MacOS and Windows have different dropdown implementations, in both cases the command menus are different from the attribute-selection menus.
This control tends to be supported by a field label or a title that takes the position of the first item in the dropdown box, so that it can be seen before making a selection. Today, dropdown menus mostly cover the first two uses of dropdowns (navigation and list of commands), whereas dropdown boxes are often the method of choice for form fill-in and attribute selection.ĭropdown boxes generally look different than dropdown menus: they have a dropdown arrow next to them and are used to select attributes or enter form data.
Attribute selection, which lets users choose a value from a menu of possible valuesĪdobe Color CC, a tool used to gather the RGB and HEX values for a set color palette, allowed users to choose a palette from a list of color rules.Īlthough originally the terms “dropdown box” and “dropdown menu” were used interchangeably, over time a functional distinction has emerged between the two. Sunnyvale.ca.gov: This form used a dropdown to allow users to select a Building Type. Form filling, which lets users select an option to enter into a form field. Harvard used dropdown menus to provide a list of links to the subcategories for each top-level category. Navigation menus, which take users to a new location. Microsoft Word used a dropdown menu to show publishing commands when users clicked the Publish icon. Command menus, which initiate an action based on the selected option. Designers employ dropdowns for a variety of different purposes, including: However, their overuse and misuse creates many usability problems and confusion. Dropdowns clearly have their place in effective web design.
0 kommentar(er)
