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Motif and CDE 2.1 Style Guide Reference

Radio Button (Control)

Reference

Description

A radio button and radio button box are defined as follows:

Radio button
Represents a value choice that can either be on or off and that is part of a mutually exclusive group of radio buttons.

Radio box
A group of mutually exclusive radio buttons that are grouped together.

Figure 53 shows an example of a radio box and radio buttons.

Figure 53. Radio Box and Buttons.




View figure.

When to Use

Recommended
Use a radio box to display mutually exclusive value choices that have textual labels.

Guidelines

Required
The radio buttons in a radio box are mutually exclusive. When the user sets one radio button, unset any other radio button in the radio box.

Recommended
If a value choice can only be set or unset, and is not part of a larger set of choices that are not mutually exclusive, use a check box instead of two radio buttons.

Required
If the values represented by the radio buttons in a radio box cover all possibilities, do not allow the user to unset the radio button that is set. Attempting to do so should have no effect.

Required
If the values represented by the radio buttons in a radio box do not cover all possibilities, then allow the user to unset the radio button that is set.

Recommended
Ensure that the radio buttons in a radio box cover all possibilities. If necessary, add a radio button labeled None (or the equivalent) that covers any remaining possibilities.

Required
When a radio box represents a value shared by multiple selected elements:

  1. Display the radio buttons as selected if that value applies to all of the selected elements.

  2. Do not display any of the radio buttons as selected if not all of the selected elements have a matching value.

    3. Required
    When a radio box represents a property shared by more than one selected element, ensure that the property of all selected elements corresponds to the radio button that the user sets.

    Recommended
    When a radio box represents a property shared by more than one selected element, and the user must be able to restore the properties of each of the selected elements after setting one of the radio buttons, then add another radio button that represents the initial state (such as No Changes). Display this button as set when no other value in the radio box applies to all the selected elements. When the user sets this radio button, restore the properties for each selected element to the value it had when this radio button was last set.

    Required
    Design a radio button with a graphic that indicates the state of the button and a text label that describes the state it controls.

    Required
    Use at least two radio buttons in a radio box.

    Recommended
    Arrange radio buttons in a group of rows, columns, or both.

    Recommended
    Use a filled circle, diamond, or square as the graphic for the radio button.

    Recommended
    If you support color, use a color different from the other application colors to create a visually distinct on state. If you do not support color, represent the on state as either white or black, depending on the background being used.

    Essential Related Topics

    For more information, see the Control reference page.

    Supplemental Related Topics

    For more information, see the Check Box (Control), Choice, Label, and Value Set (Control) reference pages.

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