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Motif and CDE 2.1 Style Guide Reference

Multipage Control (Control Type)

Reference

Description

Multipage control includes the following:

Multipage control
A kind of control that shows one or more pages at a time from among a larger set of pages, each page containing one or more controls.

Paging control
Associated with multipage control, switches pages within a multipage control.

When to Use

Recommended
Use a multipage control to organize groups of controls that can be logically subdivided into groups, and that should not or need not all be displayed at once.

Recommended
Use a multipage control instead of placing related controls in separate windows connected by dialog choices on push buttons.

Recommended
Use a multipage control instead of scrolling an area that contains a large number of controls.

Recommended
Use a multipage control to organize groups of controls in a window according to some application-specific order, for example, sorted in ascending order by page number.

Recommended
Do not use a multipage control when a set of controls does not fit within a viewing area. Use a More choice instead.

Guidelines

Required
Organize the controls within each page of a multipage control into one or more tab groups.

Required
Do not use tab group navigation to switch pages of a multipage control.

Required
When forward tab group navigation is in use, traverse all tab groups on a visible page before navigating off the page.

Required
When tab group navigation moves focus into a multipage control, place focus, initially, in one of the visible pages.

Recommended
If focus is within a page in a multipage control, then allow pressing PageUp, Ctrl PageUp, or PageLeft (or PageDown, Ctrl PageDown, or PageRight) to switch to an appropriate subsequent (or preceding) page, unless the control uses the key within the page that has focus.

Recommended
When a small fixed set of distinct pages are to be used in a multipage control, use a list, drop-down list, or option menu as the paging control.

Recommended
When a small set of pages, some or all of which are similar, are to be used in a multipage control, use a spin box as the paging control.

Recommended
When a multipage control does not itself support organization of the pages in groups, use an option menu with cascading menus as the paging control.

Essential Related Topics

For more information, see the Control and Notebook (Control) reference pages.

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