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Figure 14-6 A scope bar in an application window

Scope bar

The Title Bar

All windows should have a title bar even if the window doesn’t have a title (which should be a very rare exception). In Mac OS X v10.5 and later, all windows display the title bar unified with the toolbar, if a toolbar is present. The following sections describe the components of the title bar.

The Window Title

A document window should display the name of the document being viewed. Application windows display the application name. Panels display a descriptive title appropriate for that window. If the contents of the window can change, it might be appropriate to change the title to reflect the current context. For example, in the Keynote inspector panel, the title of the window changes to reflect which pane has been selected.

If you need to display more than one item in the title, separate the items with an em dash (—) with space on either side. For example, the main viewer window of Mail displays the currently selected message mailbox and the selected folder, if any. When a message is viewed in its own window, the message title is displayed.

Don’t display pathnames in window titles. When displaying document titles, use the display name and show the extension if the user has elected to show extensions. If you need to display a path in the body of a window you can use the path control, described in “Path Controls” (page 289).

The only controls that belong in a title bar are the close, minimize, and zoom buttons. If a title bar is combined with a toolbar, the unified area can contain the toolbar control and the toolbar customization contextual menu (these controls are described in “Title Bar Buttons” (page 194)). Do not place other controls in a title bar.

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Title Bar Buttons

Document and application windows always display active close and minimize buttons. (See “Closing Windows” (page 216) and “Minimizing and Expanding Windows” (page 216) for details on what the close and minimize buttons do.) Include the zoom button if the window can be adjusted in size. Information on how the zoom button works is in “Resizing and Zooming Windows” (page 215).

Panels always display an active close button but never an active minimize button.

If buttons are not active, they should at least all be present in an inactive state. The exception is in panels, where it is acceptable to display only one button, the close button. For more information on panels, including information on their title bar buttons, see “Panels” (page 222).

Alerts and modal dialogs do not display any of these buttons.

The title bar should include a toolbar control if a toolbar is present in the window (see “Toolbars” (page 196)). Figure 14-7 shows the appropriate configurations of title bar buttons for standard windows (and alerts and modal dialogs); Figure 14-39 (page 224) shows appropriate title bar button configurations for panels.

Figure 14-7 Title bar buttons for standard windows

Alerts and modal dialogs only

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Indicating Changes with the Close Button

When a document has unsaved changes, the close button should display a dot, as shown in Figure 14-8.

Figure 14-8 The close button in its unsaved changes state

The dot indicates that this document has unsaved changes.

The Proxy Icon

Document windows can include a proxy icon in the title bar after the content is saved for the first time. After pressing a proxy icon for a brief period, users can manipulate it as if they were manipulating the corresponding file-system object. For example, you can attach a document to an email message by dragging its proxy icon into the email message, as shown in Figure 14-9.

Figure 14-9 A proxy icon being dragged to another application

A proxy icon appears in its normal state as long as the state of the document and the file-system object are the same. When a document has unsaved changes, its proxy icon appears dimmed. Note the difference between the proxy icon in the document with unsaved changes versus the document with saved changes in Figure 14-10.

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2008-06-09 | © 1992, 2001-2003, 2008 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.