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| __NOTOC__
| | {{ Moved To Community | KDE_Visual_Design_Group/HIG/Combo Box }} |
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| Combo boxes offer the user a choice of two or more mutually exclusive options. Their disadvantage compared to related controls like [[Guidelines:Radio Button|radio buttons]] or [[Guidelines:Lists|lists]] is that the options are not visible without further interaction.
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| * Use combo boxes instead of radio buttons for more than four mutually exclusive options.
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| * Don't use them for less than three options or more than 10 choices. In the latter case, use lists instead.
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| * In general, controls that show the options without further user interaction are preferable, except for the following cases:
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| ** the list of options may change over time,
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| ** the contents are obvious from the label and the one selected item, for example ''Month'' and ''January''
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| ** the combo box is part of a related sequence of controls. For example, to set a reminder to ring 5 hours or minutes before or after an event.
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| * Provide a descriptive label to the left (in left-to-right scripts), in some cases above the combo box. Don't forget to create a buddy relation so access keys are assigned.
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| * Don't initiate an action when the user selects an item from a drop-down list.
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| * Make sure the items are easily accessible via keyboard by moving distinctive letters to the beginning of each option. For example, in a list of countries on continents, write ''Germany (Europe)'' instead of ''Europe/Germany''.
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| * Use sentence style capitalization for the label and the options.
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| * If activating a choice affects the appearance or the enabled state of other controls, place them next to the radio button or in the next row (indented).
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