I have a grid that has a bunch of data. Some of the fields are editable and cause a postback updating the data. What are the best ways to show that to the user? i.e. Is there a best practice for how to make a distinction between editable and non-editable from a UI perspective?
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I usually keep my editable fields white and non-editable fields grey (or monochromatic colors if not white fields, light-color: editable and dark-color: non-editable). |
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Yeah, there is a best practice - make editable fields look like text boxes and non-editable fields look like text. There's a reason that those two UI elements have distinct looks. |
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This may reveal a personal bias but I also tend to prefer some kind of "focus visual" that indicates to a user which field they are on. A soft background or border are ways to accomplish this. |
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Typically I have a grey background and white editable field. When the field is not editable I set it's background to the same grey (which technically is the same as transparent,, but the user doesn't care about that.. They just see that it is the same). |
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Somewhat off topic but unless it is meant for simple data entry, providing editable grids might actually be an anti-pattern. See http://skizz.biz/blog/2007/02/23/the-editable-grid-antipattern/ |
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