Projects/Usability/HIG/GroupBox

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Revision as of 08:51, 27 September 2013 by Htietze (talk | contribs)


Purpose

A group box is a labeled rectangular area that surrounds a set of related controls.

A group box is a way to show relationships visually; it provides no additional functionality.

Example

Guidelines

Is this the right control

  • Always use a group box to arrange related controls.
  • Do not group single controls.
  • Consider to communicate relationship by layout only.

Behavior

  • Do not nest grouping elements; use layout to show relationships within a group.
  • Do not place controls in group box’ caption.
  • Do not disable groups. To indicate that a group of controls doesn't currently apply, disable all the controls within the group, but not the group itself.
  • Put a splitter between aligned grouping controls.

Appearance

  • Label the group box with a descriptive caption. If a label doesn't fit at all use a frame instead.
  • Do not assign an access key to the group box’ caption.

Implementation