Do not give the OK button a keyboard accelerator

Raymond Chen, a well-known developer on the Windows Shell team at Microsoft, mentioned a principle about dialog design in his blog: Do not give the OK button a keyboard accelerator [1].

But it is funny, that even their own products do not follow this principle strictly. A remarkable example is the "Restart Prompt Dialog of Automatic Updates" in WindowsXP. Both buttons "Restart Now" and "Restart Later" have a keyboard accelerator. If this dialog pops up, while I am pressing ALT+N, the current Windows session will be terminated immediately. And there is no Postpone button either. This button appears in Windows Vista, but there is no option "Do not prompt me again, I will restart my computer later.". If I do not intend to restart my computer very soon, I have to press "Postpone" in every 4 hours. It is really annoying! Not only the unfriendly design, but also infinite critical Windows updates. The only one option for me is to turn off "Automatic Updates".

According to the great design principles [2]: I suggest remove those keyboard accelerators and add a 10-second-delay before restarting Windows, so that user can cancel this action. This is called user experience!

References

1. Gentle reminder: On a dialog box, do not give OK and Cancel accelerators
2. How to Design a Great User Experience

 

Form disappeared

After I started working on dual monitors, I have found another interesting issue:

1. Create a new application with a main form and a sub-form.
2. Set the property Position of the sub-form to poMainFormCenter
3. Create a button "Show Sub-Form" on main form.
4. Move more than 50% area of the main form out of the main screen.
5. Click the button, we created.

The sub-form disappeared! Because the popup position of sub-form is out of the screen. I did a similar test with Internet Explorer. Its dialog will be shown at the corner of the screen. It can be regarded as a bug, so I have reported this issue to QualityCentral [1] as well.

Solution

This time you have to modify Forms.pas

1. Copy Forms.pas to your project folder,
2. find and replace with the following code,
3. and then recompile your project again.

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1. {$IFDEF FIXUP_FORM_POPUP_POSITION}  
2. function GetPrimaryMonitor: TMonitor;  
3. var  
4.   I: Integer;  
5. begin  
6.   for I := 0 to Screen.MonitorCount - 1 do  
7.   begin  
8.     Result := Screen.Monitors[I];  
9.     if Result.Primary then  
10.       Exit;  
11.   end;  
12.   Result := Screen.Monitors[0];  
13. end;  
14.   
15. procedure CenterFormToPrimaryMonitorCenter(var X, Y: Integer;   
16.   AForm: TCustomForm);  
17. var  
18.   R: TRect;  
19. begin  
20.   R := GetPrimaryMonitor.WorkareaRect;  
21.   X := R.Left + (R.Right - R.Left - AForm.Width) div 2;  
22.   Y := R.Top + (R.Bottom - R.Top - AForm.Height) div 2;  
23. end;  
24.   
25. procedure SnapFormToMonitorEdgeOnDemand(var X, Y: Integer;   
26.   AForm: TCustomForm);  
27. var  
28.   DistanceLeft, DistanceRight: Integer;  
29.   CenterMon: TMonitor;  
30.   R: TRect;  
31. begin  
32.   CenterMon := Screen.MonitorFromPoint(  
33.     Point(X + AForm.Width div 2, Screen.DesktopHeight div 2));  
34.   R := CenterMon.WorkareaRect;  
35.   // Adjust X-pos  
36.   DistanceLeft  := X - R.Left;  
37.   DistanceRight := R.Right - (X + AForm.Width);  
38.   if (DistanceLeft < 0) and (DistanceRight < 0) then  
39.   begin  
40.     if DistanceLeft >= DistanceRight then  
41.          X := R.Left // Snap to left edge  
42.     else X := R.Right - AForm.Width; // Snap to right edge  
43.   end  
44.   else if (DistanceLeft < 0) or (DistanceRight < 0) then  
45.   begin  
46.     if DistanceLeft < 0 then  
47.          X := R.Left // Snap to left edge  
48.     else X := R.Right - AForm.Width; // Snap to right edge  
49.   end;  
50.   // Adjust Y-pos  
51.   if Y < R.Top then  
52.     Y := R.Top  
53.   else if Y > R.Bottom - AForm.Height then  
54.     Y := R.Bottom - AForm.Height;  
55. end;  
56. {$ENDIF}  
57.   
58. procedure TCustomForm.CMShowingChanged(var Message: TMessage);  
59. // ...  
60.     if (FPosition = poScreenCenter) or  
61.        ((FPosition = poMainFormCenter) and (FormStyle = fsMDIChild)) then  
62.     begin  
63.       if FormStyle = fsMDIChild then  
64.       begin  
65.         X := (Application.MainForm.ClientWidth - Width) div 2;  
66.         Y := (Application.MainForm.ClientHeight - Height) div 2;  
67.       end else  
68.       begin  
69.       {$IFDEF FIXUP_FORM_POPUP_POSITION}  
70.         CenterFormToPrimaryMonitorCenter(X, Y, Self);  
71.       {$ELSE}  
72.         X := (Screen.Width - Width) div 2;  
73.         Y := (Screen.Height - Height) div 2;  
74.       {$ENDIF}  
75.       end;  
76.     {$IFDEF FIXUP_FORM_POPUP_POSITION}  
77.       SnapFormToMonitorEdgeOnDemand(X, Y, Self);  
78.       SetBounds(X, Y, Width, Height);  
79.       //SetWindowToMonitor() will cause unexpected popup position change!  
80.     {$ELSE}  
81.       if X < Screen.DesktopLeft then  
82.         X := Screen.DesktopLeft;  
83.       if Y < Screen.DesktopTop then  
84.         Y := Screen.DesktopTop;  
85.       SetBounds(X, Y, Width, Height);  
86.       if Visible then SetWindowToMonitor;  
87.     {$ENDIF}  
88.     end  
89.     else if FPosition in [poMainFormCenter, poOwnerFormCenter] then  
90.     begin  
91.       CenterForm := Application.MainForm;  
92.       if (FPosition = poOwnerFormCenter) and (Owner is TCustomForm) then  
93.         CenterForm := TCustomForm(Owner);  
94.       if Assigned(CenterForm) then  
95.       begin  
96.         X := ((CenterForm.Width - Width) div 2) + CenterForm.Left;  
97.         Y := ((CenterForm.Height - Height) div 2) + CenterForm.Top;  
98.       end else  
99.       begin  
100.       {$IFDEF FIXUP_FORM_POPUP_POSITION}  
101.         CenterFormToPrimaryMonitorCenter(X, Y, Self);  
102.       {$ELSE}  
103.         X := (Screen.Width - Width) div 2;  
104.         Y := (Screen.Height - Height) div 2;  
105.       {$ENDIF}  
106.       end;  
107.     {$IFDEF FIXUP_FORM_POPUP_POSITION}  
108.       SnapFormToMonitorEdgeOnDemand(X, Y, Self);  
109.       SetBounds(X, Y, Width, Height);  
110.       //SetWindowToMonitor() will cause unexpected popup position change!  
111.     {$ELSE}  
112.       if X < Screen.DesktopLeft then  
113.         X := Screen.DesktopLeft;  
114.       if Y < Screen.DesktopTop then  
115.         Y := Screen.DesktopTop;  
116.       SetBounds(X, Y, Width, Height);  
117.       if Visible then SetWindowToMonitor;  
118.     {$ENDIF}  
119.     end  
120.     else if FPosition = poDesktopCenter then  
121. // ...  
122. end;  

{$IFDEF FIXUP_FORM_POPUP_POSITION}
function GetPrimaryMonitor: TMonitor;
var
  I: Integer;
begin
  for I := 0 to Screen.MonitorCount - 1 do
  begin
    Result := Screen.Monitors[I];
    if Result.Primary then
      Exit;
  end;
  Result := Screen.Monitors[0];
end;

procedure CenterFormToPrimaryMonitorCenter(var X, Y: Integer; 
  AForm: TCustomForm);
var
  R: TRect;
begin
  R := GetPrimaryMonitor.WorkareaRect;
  X := R.Left + (R.Right - R.Left - AForm.Width) div 2;
  Y := R.Top + (R.Bottom - R.Top - AForm.Height) div 2;
end;

procedure SnapFormToMonitorEdgeOnDemand(var X, Y: Integer; 
  AForm: TCustomForm);
var
  DistanceLeft, DistanceRight: Integer;
  CenterMon: TMonitor;
  R: TRect;
begin
  CenterMon := Screen.MonitorFromPoint(
    Point(X + AForm.Width div 2, Screen.DesktopHeight div 2));
  R := CenterMon.WorkareaRect;
  // Adjust X-pos
  DistanceLeft  := X - R.Left;
  DistanceRight := R.Right - (X + AForm.Width);
  if (DistanceLeft < 0) and (DistanceRight < 0) then
  begin
    if DistanceLeft >= DistanceRight then
         X := R.Left // Snap to left edge
    else X := R.Right - AForm.Width; // Snap to right edge
  end
  else if (DistanceLeft < 0) or (DistanceRight < 0) then
  begin
    if DistanceLeft < 0 then
         X := R.Left // Snap to left edge
    else X := R.Right - AForm.Width; // Snap to right edge
  end;
  // Adjust Y-pos
  if Y < R.Top then
    Y := R.Top
  else if Y > R.Bottom - AForm.Height then
    Y := R.Bottom - AForm.Height;
end;
{$ENDIF}

procedure TCustomForm.CMShowingChanged(var Message: TMessage);
// ...
    if (FPosition = poScreenCenter) or
       ((FPosition = poMainFormCenter) and (FormStyle = fsMDIChild)) then
    begin
      if FormStyle = fsMDIChild then
      begin
        X := (Application.MainForm.ClientWidth - Width) div 2;
        Y := (Application.MainForm.ClientHeight - Height) div 2;
      end else
      begin
      {$IFDEF FIXUP_FORM_POPUP_POSITION}
        CenterFormToPrimaryMonitorCenter(X, Y, Self);
      {$ELSE}
        X := (Screen.Width - Width) div 2;
        Y := (Screen.Height - Height) div 2;
      {$ENDIF}
      end;
    {$IFDEF FIXUP_FORM_POPUP_POSITION}
      SnapFormToMonitorEdgeOnDemand(X, Y, Self);
      SetBounds(X, Y, Width, Height);
      //SetWindowToMonitor() will cause unexpected popup position change!
    {$ELSE}
      if X < Screen.DesktopLeft then
        X := Screen.DesktopLeft;
      if Y < Screen.DesktopTop then
        Y := Screen.DesktopTop;
      SetBounds(X, Y, Width, Height);
      if Visible then SetWindowToMonitor;
    {$ENDIF}
    end
    else if FPosition in [poMainFormCenter, poOwnerFormCenter] then
    begin
      CenterForm := Application.MainForm;
      if (FPosition = poOwnerFormCenter) and (Owner is TCustomForm) then
        CenterForm := TCustomForm(Owner);
      if Assigned(CenterForm) then
      begin
        X := ((CenterForm.Width - Width) div 2) + CenterForm.Left;
        Y := ((CenterForm.Height - Height) div 2) + CenterForm.Top;
      end else
      begin
      {$IFDEF FIXUP_FORM_POPUP_POSITION}
        CenterFormToPrimaryMonitorCenter(X, Y, Self);
      {$ELSE}
        X := (Screen.Width - Width) div 2;
        Y := (Screen.Height - Height) div 2;
      {$ENDIF}
      end;
    {$IFDEF FIXUP_FORM_POPUP_POSITION}
      SnapFormToMonitorEdgeOnDemand(X, Y, Self);
      SetBounds(X, Y, Width, Height);
      //SetWindowToMonitor() will cause unexpected popup position change!
    {$ELSE}
      if X < Screen.DesktopLeft then
        X := Screen.DesktopLeft;
      if Y < Screen.DesktopTop then
        Y := Screen.DesktopTop;
      SetBounds(X, Y, Width, Height);
      if Visible then SetWindowToMonitor;
    {$ENDIF}
    end
    else if FPosition = poDesktopCenter then
// ...
end;

Conclusion

This issue is nothing. The motivation of this article [2] is to suggest you figure out the differences among DesktopRect, BoundsRect and WorkAreaRect. They are almost the same on one monitor environment. But they are totally different on dual monitors, especially when TaskBar is not at its default position.

References

1. Related discuss at QualityCentral.
2. The Chinese version of this article (on my blog @csdn)