Re: stopping someone from tabbing past a certain text field

On 04.02.2010, at 18:22, Chad Leigh -- ObjectWerks Inc wrote:
>> For the user it's typically *very* frustrating to be prevented from leaving fields blank - I'd advise against doing that.
> 
> Well, on a product registration page where 2 of the fields must be filled out, I'd rather they knew it before they hit the submit button and are told.

 Several options:

1) Do like on a web page and put an asterisk next to the required fields

2) Override controlTextDidChange: or the similar NSText/NSTextView methods (you may have to supply your own field editor), or use bindings and override the setter to also do validation, and then display a warning icon next to fields that aren't valid yet. That's how Apple does it in the setup assistant that comes up when you start a new Mac.

3) Same as #2, but disable the OK button until all required fields are filled out. I don't really recommend this. Some people may not understand the icons ((color) blindness, cultural differences, bad icon design, tiredness...), so having the option to click "OK" and be presented with a textual error message saying sth. like "<label of first invalid field> needs to be filled out" can save you a bunch of support calls.

-- Uli Kusterer
Sole Janitor
http://www.the-void-software.com