Timeline for Should I use Yes/No or Ok/Cancel on my message box?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
25 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jul 22, 2020 at 7:11 | comment | added | PhillipW | joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/26/… The earliest observation in print I know of the 'Users don't Read' problem. | |
| S Oct 7, 2019 at 22:04 | history | suggested | Boric | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
replace dead link with current equivalent
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| Oct 7, 2019 at 19:36 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Oct 7, 2019 at 22:04 | |||||
| S Oct 17, 2016 at 12:12 | history | edited | Nick | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Corrected URL for Apple Human Interface Guidelines
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| S Oct 17, 2016 at 12:12 | history | suggested | starlocke | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Updated URL for Apple Human Interface Guidelines
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| Oct 17, 2016 at 12:07 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Oct 17, 2016 at 12:12 | |||||
| May 5, 2014 at 19:57 | comment | added | TheMaskedCucumber | @Michael — In your examples, Apple does not reverse the button order. The buttons are in the good order, with the action button being the last one. Regarding the button Cancel being the default button : yes this is unusual, but this is justified for an action bearing a huge risk such as formatting a volume. | |
| May 5, 2014 at 13:36 | comment | added | Michael Shopsin | @NicolasBarbulesco Erase in Disk Utilities has the button order as Cancel/Erase but sets the default to Cancel instead of Erase. In this dialog hitting return will not complete the action instead of completing it. The user in the Erase dialog will have to deliberately click the Erase button, not just mindlessly go OK. Also Quit in Disk Utilities brings up a Quit/Don't Quit with Don't Quit as the default, the order in other programs is Cancel/Quit with Quit as the default. | |
| May 4, 2014 at 11:22 | comment | added | TheMaskedCucumber | Very good answer. | |
| May 4, 2014 at 11:21 | comment | added | TheMaskedCucumber | @Michael — Apple reversing the button order ? Do you have an example ? | |
| Jan 7, 2013 at 16:32 | comment | added | Evan Wondrasek |
@MatsT @Phil I decided to do this a while back, so I created a customizable WPF clone of the native .NET/Windows MessageBox. It's a plug-and-play replacement for the standard MessageBox, but offers methods to add custom strings to the Ok, Ok/Cancel, Yes/No, and Yes/No/Cancel buttons. You can check it out on Github: github.com/evanwon/WPFCustomMessageBox
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| Aug 18, 2011 at 12:38 | vote | accept | laurent | ||
| Aug 17, 2011 at 21:07 | comment | added | music2myear | Phrasing the message to fit within the confines of windows messages works as well: "Are you sure you want to format your hard drive?" will fit grammatically with Yes and No option buttones. | |
| Aug 13, 2011 at 3:42 | comment | added | Lie Ryan | @mskfisher: it wasn't so bad this time around since the longer help text does explain which clearly, but yes, it certainly could be improved. | |
| Aug 12, 2011 at 21:35 | comment | added | mskfisher | Kind of ironic that Apple's guideline example is ambiguous. Am I securing the empty trash, or am I securely emptying the trash? It should've been "Securely Empty Trash / Cancel" | |
| Aug 12, 2011 at 19:58 | comment | added | corsiKa | I read the section of the article surrounding that post and it makes no mention of why they chose to have no title. Any ideas on that? Personally, I like the idea of a title, but that's just me. | |
| Aug 12, 2011 at 16:56 | history | edited | Nick | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Added clarification regarding 'no' vs 'cancel'
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| Aug 12, 2011 at 15:50 | comment | added | Michael Shopsin | For OK/Cancel you should think about what the question is. These days even Apple reverses the button order when the default answer should be cancel. | |
| Aug 12, 2011 at 15:04 | history | edited | Nick | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
typo, grammar
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| Aug 12, 2011 at 14:31 | comment | added | user606723 | All I can say, is be careful with synonyms of cancel. The Ok/Cancel and Yes/No paradigm is often less confusing than some of the dialogs I've used on a few Linux apps.. who apparently agree with your assessment. My conclusion is that 'Yes/No' should be avoided less than 'Ok/Cancel' | |
| Aug 12, 2011 at 14:04 | comment | added | Phil | @MatsT On the other hand, I would suggest it's worth the effort to roll your own dialog box in the name of easier-to-use software. | |
| Aug 12, 2011 at 12:25 | comment | added | krookedking | As a side comment - for the formatting dialog, and other important non-undoable actions, I'd put the focus on the "Cancel" button. | |
| Aug 12, 2011 at 12:09 | comment | added | MatsT | While the first dialog can look extremely weird, basic Windows dialogs can only choose from a limited number of button texts (ok, cancel, yes, no) and if you do not want to implement your own dialogs you're stuck with those. This is why you can see even weirder things such as "Hit OK to quit or Cancel to debug the application". (With reservation that this is probably fixed in newer versions of Windows) | |
| Aug 12, 2011 at 11:10 | history | edited | Nick | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
typo
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| Aug 12, 2011 at 10:32 | history | answered | Nick | CC BY-SA 3.0 |