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Motif and CDE 2.1 Style Guide Reference


Viewing Area (Control)

Reference

Description

A viewing area is a control or group of controls used to display the data or information viewed in a window.

When to Use

Required
Provide a viewing area when a window is used to display user-provided or specified application-interpreted information. For example, text from a text file would be shown in the viewing area of a word-processing application.

Guidelines

Required
If a window contains multiple viewing areas, and the user makes a choice that can apply to more than one view, apply it to the area that has focus. If no area has focus, then apply the choice to the area that has interacted emphasis. Otherwise, issue a warning signal.

Required
Provide at least one viewing area in every primary window.

Required
Place the viewing areas below the status area and menu bar and above the information area and command area.

Required
Support both horizontal and vertical scrolling in each viewing area.

Recommended
If more than one viewing area is to be displayed in a window, display them in panes of a paned box.

Recommended
If more than one viewing area is to be displayed in a window, and some of them can be scrolled, support coordinated scrolling when appropriate.

Recommended
When displaying a new instance of a view that contains a selection scope (for example, a new window or a split view), place the cursor in the same place in the new view selection scope as in the view it was derived from.

Recommended
Support preferred discrete sizes or size increments for the viewing area if the element displayed in the viewing area has preferred discrete sizes or size increments.

Recommended
If the contents of a view can be scaled when the size of the viewing area is changed, provide an option to specify whether to scale or clip the contents of the view.

Essential Related Topics

For more information, see the Client Area and View reference pages.

Supplemental Related Topics

For more information, see the View Menu and Workspace reference pages.


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