Dialog Boxes

A dialog box provides an exchange of information or dialog between the user and the application. Use a dialog box to obtain additional information from the user — information needed to carry out a particular command or task.

Because dialog boxes generally appear after choosing a particular menu item (including pop-up or cascading menu items) or a command button, define the title text for the dialog box window to be the name of the associated command. Do not include an ellipsis in the title text, even if the command menu name may have included one. Also, avoid including the command's menu title unless necessary to compose a reasonable title for the dialog box. For example, for a Print command on the File menu, define the dialog box window's title text as Print, not Print... or File Print. However, for an Object... command on an Insert menu, you can title the dialog box as Insert Object.