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Motif and CDE 2.1 Style Guide Reference

Save/Save As (Action Choice)

Reference

Description

The Save and Save As action choices are defined as follows:

Save
An action choice in the File pull-down menu that stores the application's data into a previously determined file or object.

Save As
A dialog choice in the File pull-down menu that leads to a file selection dialog in which users can specify the file or object in which application data is to be stored.

Figure 55. Save As Dialog.




View figure.

Guidelines

Required
Place the Save and Save As choices in the File menu.

Required
Provide a Save choice for each file or object with a specified name that is not automatically saved when changed.

Required
Provide a Save As choice for each file or object that the user can save with a new name.

Required
Do not close the window or change the appearance of the data when the user chooses Save or Save As.

Required
The file or object to be saved should be the last file the user interacted with using Save As or Move To. Otherwise, the file or object to be saved should be the one that the user opened in the current window.

Required
If the user attempts to save a new file or object under an existing name, display a warning message stating that a loss of data will occur. For example: 
myfile already exists.
 
Choose OK to overwrite.

Required
If the file or object being saved does not have a user-assigned name, either make Save unavailable or display the Save As dialog.

Required
If the user cannot save the data in the current file or object (for example, a file is read-only), display a warning message and allow the user to either cancel the operation or provide a new destination via a Save As dialog.

Required
Display the Save As dialog in a secondary window that is dependent on the window from which the user chooses Save As.

Required
Provide a Save (or OK) push button to allow the user to save the current file or object with the specified name.

Required
Provide a Cancel push button to allow the user to close the Save As dialog without saving the file or object.

Recommended
Provide a Help push button that displays help information for the Save As window.

Required
Provide a text-entry field to allow the user to type the name of the new file or object.

Required
Provide a drop-down list that allows the user to display a list of file types that can be saved.

Recommended
Provide a drop-down list that allows a user to specify the storage device (for example, /dev/tape).

Required
For objects, provide a list of appropriate containers. Highlight the current container and show the containment hierarchy by indenting containers that are within other containers.

Required
For objects, provide a list box that lists the names of all objects in the specified container.

Required
Assign "S" as the mnemonic for the Save menu item.

Required
Assign "A" as the mnemonic for the Save As menu item.

Essential Related Topics

For more information, see the File Menu reference page.

Supplemental Related Topics

For more information, see the Close (Choice), Dialog (Window), Open (Choice), and Text-Entry Field (Control) reference pages.

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