Answer: default buttons

[Richard Gaskin]

Ken Ray wrote:
> On 3/9/05 11:08 AM, "Frank D. Engel, Jr." <fde101 at fjrhome.net> wrote:
>>Interestingly enough, the OS X version of this dialog (with buttons
>>"Cancel" and "Replace" does not adhere to the HI guidelines, and makes
>>"Replace" the default...
> 
> Must be app-specific, because I tried this with BBEdit and it *does* adhere
> to the HI Guidelines (Cancel is the default, but Replace is the right-most
> button).

The employment of this rule is somewhat subjective.  For myself, while I 
like it in rare cases, I would argue that BBEdit got it wrong there. 
The user chose "Replace" from a menu item -- they're aware of the action 
and can reasonably be assumed to understand its consequences. Therefore 
I would make the confirmation button the default.

Circumstances in which I could see having the default be something other 
than the confirmation button would be actions where the implications are 
an unrecoverable loss of data and whose implications may not be fully 
understood.  For example, choosing "Format Drive" from a disk utility 
menu means some pretty serious stuff -- I would make "Cancel" the 
default there.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
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