Every Motif application contains a MainWindow, which organizes the contents of the application. Generally, you access primary functionality of an application through components in the MainWindow. The components included in a MainWindow will vary from application to application. The MainWindow in a typical application may contain a MenuBar, ScrollBars, and areas for entering commands and viewing messages, as well as the components that are specific to the application.

The MenuBar is a horizontal bar located just under the window's title bar. The MenuBar organizes the most common features in an application. The area below the MenuBar contains the components for the primary functionality of the application. For example, in a spreadsheet program, the spreadsheet grid would be displayed in this area. In an electronic mail application, this area would contain components for reading and sending mail messages. Vertical and horizontal ScrollBars allow you to view data that requires more space than is available in the MainWindow at any one time. Applications that use a command-line interface in addition to a graphical interface provide a command area for entering commands. The command area normally runs from border to border across the bottom of the MainWindow. An application may also include a region for displaying short messages.

Figure 3-1 shows the basic components of a MainWindow for Motif applications. Most applications will have additional components in their MainWindows.

Buttons are basic components that activate functionality in Motif applications. Buttons operate as standalone interface components and are also used in building Menus and DialogBoxes.

Menus provide controls for frequently used features of an application. Once you have selected a Menu, choosing an item on that Menu initiates an associated action. Remember that while a Menu is posted, you cannot interact with other components of the application. Motif supports these types of Menus:

Motif applications use DialogBoxes for tasks that are of secondary importance in the application. A DialogBox may provide you with information, such as an error message, or ask you to enter information, such as a file to open. DialogBoxes may limit how you can interact with other windows in an application. A modal DialogBox requires that you respond before you can interact with any other components in the application. A modeless DialogBox does not limit your interaction with the rest of an application, so it can remain available for the duration of an application and be used to perform multiple actions.

Applications can design DialogBoxes with any number and any combination of components. Figure 3-9 shows a DialogBox that contains many different components for adjusting the settings for a text editor.

At a minimum, a DialogBox contains a Label and a PushButton for supplying a response. The Motif toolkit provides the following types of DialogBoxes for general functions that are common to many applications:

Each of these DialogBoxes defines its own user interaction.

An application typically uses a PromptDialog to get information that it needs to continue processing. A PromptDialog usually interrupts your interaction with the rest of the program. The PromptDialog includes a message, a Text input area where you type the requested information, and PushButtons for responding to the DialogBox. Figure 3-10 shows a PromptDialog.

Motif also provides a number of different types of MessageDialogs, including an ErrorDialog, an InformationDialog, a QuestionDialog, a WarningDialog, and a WorkingDialog. Each type of MessageDialog contains a graphical symbol that represents its purpose, a textual message, and PushButton commands that are appropriate for the DialogBox. Figure 3-11 shows a QuestionDialog. A QuestionDialog contains a question symbol, a message that asks you a question and PushButtons that allow you to answer the question.

Every DialogBox contains a row of PushButtons at the bottom of the box that allow you to respond to the DialogBox. The Motif Style Guide defines a number of common actions for DialogBoxes. The intent of the common actions is to provide you with consistent behavior in different Motif applications. In Motif Style Guide compliant applications, the common DialogBox actions have the following meaning and behavior:

Motif includes the following adjustable components:

A List component presents a list of items for selection. Motif provides List components that allow you to select single items, multiple items, or discontiguous ranges of items. An application can use Lists to handle different types of selections; the purpose of the List within the application determines the number of items that you can select. A List can also provide vertical and horizontal ScrollBars when the contents of the List are larger than its window. The selected item(s) in a List are highlighted (see Figure 3-15).

To select a single item from a List:

A single-selection style List may also support browse-style selection. Browse-style selection allows you to select an item by pressing Button 1 on an item, dragging the pointer through the List, and releasing Button 1 on the item that you want to select.

To select a contiguous group of items from a List:

You can also select a group of items by selecting a single item, moving the pointer to the last item in the group, and pressing Shift as you click Button 1. All of the items between the first and the last items will be selected.

To add a discontiguous group of items to a selection:

If a List has the input focus, you can navigate through the items in the List and make selections using the keyboard. List components use a location cursor to indicate which item in the List has the input focus. The location cursor is shown by a box around a List item. Use the up and down arrow keys to move the location cursor through the items in the List. Depending on the type of List you are using, the selection may move with the location cursor. If the selection does not move with the location cursor, you can select an item by pressing Select or Space.

The List component allows you to make all of the different types of selections from the keyboard. For more information on keyboard-based selection, see the Motif Style Guide.

In a List that allows you to select multiple items, you can select all of the items in the List by pressing Ctrl /. You can deselect all of the items in the List by pressing Ctrl \.

You can cancel an in-progress drag-based selection operation by pressing Cancel at any time during the operation.

Many applications include areas for entering and editing text. The Text entry area may be a single line for entering the answer to a question in a DialogBox. However, the Text area can be any length, depending on the needs of the application.

Text components use an insertion cursor to indicate where the information that you are typing will be inserted. When a Text component has the input focus, the insertion cursor is indicated by a blinking I-beam cursor (see Figure 3-16).

To move the Text insertion cursor:

If a Text component has the input focus, you can navigate through the text using the keyboard. The left and right arrows keys move the insertion cursor by a character. The up and down arrow keys move the insertion cursor by a line. Pressing Ctrl and using the left and right arrows navigates by words. Pressing Ctrl and using the up and down arrows navigates by paragraphs. PageUp, PageDown, PageLeft or Ctrl PageUp, and PageRight or Ctrl PageDown move the insertion cursor by pages.

You can use any of the following methods to select Text:

To deselect a region with the mouse, move the pointer anywhere outside of the selected region and click Button 1. If you want to move the insertion cursor without changing the selection, move the pointer to the location where you want to begin typing, hold down Ctrl, and click Button 1.

Text components provide four ways to copy or move text within the same component or from one component to another: clipboard transfer, drag transfer, primary transfer, and quick transfer.

To use clipboard transfer:

To move or copy text using drag transfer:

To use primary transfer:

To move or copy text using quick transfer:

You can cancel an in-progress quick transfer operation by pressing Cancel before releasing Button 2 or by releasing Button 2 outside of the Text component.

Note that which mouse buttons are to be used for text transfer depends on how these buttons have been defined for your mouse. In some cases, Button 1 is used to both select and transfer the text and Button 2 is used to adjust or extend the selection and for primary transfer, and in other cases, Button 1 is used to select the text, and Button 2 is used to transfer it.

You can also select, copy, and move text using the keyboard instead of the mouse. To make a selection, press and hold down Shift and use the various Text navigation keys to highlight the text that you want to select. Release Shift to complete the selection.

Once the selection has been made, any further use of the navigational keys will deselect the region. You can either use the mouse as previously described to copy or move the selection or press Shift F8 to enter add mode. When you are in add mode, you can move the insertion cursor without causing the selection to be deselected. After moving the insertion cursor, press Alt Ctrl Insert to copy the selection. Press Alt Shift Delete to move the selection.

To delete text within a Text component, use BackSpace and Delete. If text is selected, either key will delete the selection. If there is no selected text, BackSpace deletes the character preceeding the cursor and Delete deletes the character following the cursor.

A ComboBox combines the capabilities of the TextField and List widgets. Applications use ComboBoxes to allow users to either type in information as their selection or to select information from a list of choices provided by the application. If the List contains more items than are displayed, a vertical ScrollBar appears next to the List. Figure 3-18 illustrates a ComboBox.

An item can be selected in a ComboBox in many ways, using either the mouse or the keyboard. To select an item using the mouse:

If the ComboBox has the input focus, List items can be traversed to and selected with the keyboard by using the up or down arrow keys. Traversing to the item will select the item, as will pressing Return.

The ComboBox illustrated in Figure 3-18 is a variation of the ComboBox called a drop-down ComboBox. In a drop-down ComboBox, the List is hidden until requested by the user. The only things showing in a drop-down ComboBox before such a request is a downward-pointing arrow next to the TextField. Figure 3-19 illustrates the drop-down ComboBox before the list has been dropped.

To drop down, or show, the List, using the mouse:

The List can be unposted by pressing Button 1.

For the keyboard, if the ComboBox has the input focus, you can press Ctrl and the down arrow or Ctrl and the up arrow to display the List. The List can be unposted by pressing Ctrl and the up arrow, Ctrl and the down arrow, Return, or Cancel. Note that pressing Returnwill not only unpost the List, but also show the current contents of the TextField.

Some ComboBoxes have text entry fields that are non-editable. You can tell whether or not the TextField is editable by its appearance; editable text entry fields appear inset, while non-editable text entry fields do not.

You can traverse to the ComboBox's text field whether it is editable or not, using the mouse:

To traverse to the ComboBox's TextField from the keyboard, you use the Tabkey to first get to the ComboBox.

When the ComboBox has focus, a highlight outline, if a thick enough one was specified, is placed around the ComboBox.

In both cases, if the TextField is editable, subsequent keystrokes apply to the editable TextField, and the selection is typed directly into it. When an item in the List is selected, the List item is highlighted. Note that if you are entering the name of an item that already exists in the List, then you must enter the item's entire name to select that item. However, ComboBox does not automatically select a List item if you type that string into the TextField. It selects the item when you Press Button 1 on the down arrow, move the focus, or hit Return or osfActivate. The application may or may not allow you to enter a selection name that does not already exist in the List. This depends on how the application is configured. For example, if the ComboBox contains a List of existing directory names, typing in a non-listed directory name should cause an error.

If the ComboBox does not have an editable text entry field, typed text will not appear in the TextField. Instead, depending on how the ComboBox is configured, either the ComboBox will ignore what is being typed, or the ComboBox will invoke a matching algorithm. If the ComboBox is configured to activate a matching algorithm, then the ComboBox attempts to match the text, as it is being typed, with an item in the List. When the ComboBox finds a match, even if it is only from the first letter of an item, it displays the matched item in the text entry field.

A Container component presents information about application-defined objects on a 2-dimensional background for selection and/or manipulation. Each object is represented by an icon, which can display a text label and either a large or small pixmap. Container can present objects in one of three views: Large-Icon, Small-Icon, or Any-Icon.

The Large-Icon view forces each object in the Container to display its label and large pixmap. The Small-Icon view forces each object in the Container to display its label and small pixmap. The Any-Icon view allows each object to use its own defaults for specifying what to display. The icons are displayed on a 2-dimensional background (see Figures 3-24 and 3-25). The location of each icon is determined by the application, but the user can change the icon location within the Container by dragging the icon and dropping it onto a new location within the Container.

A Container also provides an Outline Layout option that allows an application to show parent-child relationships between icons. A PushButton component is displayed next to each icon that has children. The user can press and release the PushButton to display or hide the children of a particular icon. The user cannot change the locations of icons when the Outline Layout option is displayed.

Detail layout is the same as Outline Layout with the addition that the objects' information is presented as a list of items, where each item has several columns. All columns except the first contain textual information about the object; the first column usually contains an icon in either the Small-Icon or Large-Icon view. The items are displayed from top to bottom and the user cannot change their locations (see Figure 3-27).

A Notebook simulates a real notebook by grouping components into separate pages. It also contains components for accessing pages and describing pages. Only one page can be seen at a time (see the example Notebook application in Figure 3-28). The page shown in the example is a Container component that displays dialog icons; however, the Notebook can be used to contain any component and so can be used for many different applications.

The Page Scroller component (shown on the lower right corner of the page Figure 3-28) can be used to display different pages of the Notebook much as a reader would flip pages back and forth in a book. By default, a SpinBox component is used as the Page Scroller but the application can specify a different component. For example, an application could specify a ScrollBar component to be used as the Page Scroller component of the Notebook.

You can also change the page displayed by activating application-supplied button Tabs, which the Notebook displays as Major Tabs and Minor Tabs. Major Tabs are used by applications to divide the pages of the Notebook into major sections. In the example shown in Figure 3-28, Major Tabs (on the right-hand side of the page in the example) are used to divide the pages into dialogs and widgets. Minor Tabs are used by applications to subdivide the major sections. This example does not use Minor Tabs. If the Notebook is too small to show all the available Major or Minor Tabs, then Tab Scroller buttons are displayed on each side of the row or column of Tabs; you can activate these Tab Scroller buttons to scroll to the Tab you wish to see.

The Status area (which this example does not use) is used by the application to display additional information about a page. It is supplied by the application and can be different for each page shown.

Notebooks can contain five fields: the page itself, Page Scroller, Major Tabs, Minor Tabs, and Status area. However, the tabs and Status area are not required fields. Their use depends on the needs of the particular application.

For keyboard navigation, Notebook components are grouped into five fields: the page, Page Scroller, Major Tabs, Minor Tabs, and Status area. However, since all components are or can be application-supplied and may not be traversable, not all five fields may be present. See section 3.12 for instructions on keyboard navigation.

A SpinBox allows you to display, in sequence, a ring of choices. The SpinBox consists of a non-editable text area where a single choice is displayed; there are two arrow buttons next to the the text area, one on each side, for cycling through the choices. (See Figure 3-29.)

To use a SpinBox to change the displayed choice:

One arrow acts as the increment arrow, and the other as the decrement arrow. The increment arrow lets you progress through the list of choices or increase the numeric value. For example, if the SpinBox displays a date, the increment arrow changes "March" to "April." If the SpinBox displays a numeric value (for example, a quantity), the increment arrow increases the value. Similarly, the decrement arrow lets you back up through the list (from "March" to "February"), or decrease the numeric value.

If you have clicked on SpinBox arrows or text, or if you have tabbed to the SpinBox via the keyboard, the SpinBox has input focus. You can then press the arrow keys on the keyboard to spin the choices, instead of pressing Button 1 on a displayed arrow.

Motif applications that are Motif Style Guide compliant must support methods for interaction that do not depend on a mouse. For the purposes of keyboard navigation, components of the application are organized into groups called fields. To move the input focus forward from one field to the next, press Tab. To move the input focus in the reverse direction, press Shift Tab. Use the arrow keys to move the input focus among components within a field.

Menu navigation in Motif applications uses special key bindings, which are summarized in the following list:

In addition, the Tab key may be modified to move forward like an arrow key until a tab group (one or more components that can be navigated) boundary is reached. At the boundary, the Tab key then moves forward or backward to the next tab group, depending on the direction it was navigating. This Tab key modification is possible only if the display is set up to be able to

Applications may also use page navigation keys to scroll a region one page at a time. Appendix A contains the default Motif key bindings.

The drag and drop facility allows you to pick up an object from one part of your display and move it to a new location. The object you pick up is called the drag source. The location where you drop it is called the drop site.

With drag and drop, you can do the following tasks:

For example, you can print the contents of a file by dragging an icon representing the file and dropping it on an icon representing a printer.

The source and destination of the drop can both be in the same application, or they can be in different applications. Text components, Labels, Menus, and Lists are drag sources in all Motif applications. Text components are also automatically drop sites. Other drag sources and drop sites are defined by the specific applications.

Additionally, the contents of Labels and Scales may be draggable.