Displaying Publisher and Subscriber Borders
Each publisher and subscriber within a document should have a border that
appears when a user selects the contents of these sections. You should display a
publisher border as 3 pixels wide with 50 percent gray lines and a subscriber
border as 3 pixels wide with 75 percent gray lines. Separate the contents of
the section from the border itself with one pixel of white space. To create your
borders, you should use patterns--not colors. Depending on the user's monitor
type, colors may not be distinguishable.
In general, borders for publishers and subscribers should behave like the
borders of 'PICT' graphics within a word-processing document. A border
should appear when the user clicks within the content area of a publisher or a
subscriber and disappear when the user clicks outside the content area of a
section. You can also make all publisher and subscriber borders appear or
disappear by implementing an optional Show/Hide Borders menu command.
Depending on your application, you may choose to include resize handles or
similar components in your borders. See the separate section entitled
Object-Oriented Graphics Borders for an example of resize handles.
Whenever a user selects a portion of a publisher or inserts a cursor into the
publisher, you should display the border as 50 percent gray. A user can copy
the contents of a publisher or subscriber without copying the section itself by
selecting the data, copying, and then pasting the data in a new location. A user
can cut and paste a selection that contains an entire publisher or subscriber,
but you should discourage users from making multiple copies of a publisher.
When the user modifies a publisher, your application should grow or shrink
its border to accommodate the new dimension of the section.
You should display only one publisher border within a document at a time. If a
cursor is inserted within a publisher that is contained within a larger
publisher, you should display only the smaller, internal publisher border. If
it is absolutely necessary to display all section borders within a document at
the same time, you can create a Show/Hide Borders menu item.
You do not need to provide support for publishers contained within other
command (to indicate that it is not selec table) when a user attempts to create a
publisher within an existing publisher.
The Figure below shows the recommended border behavior for publishers
when borders are shown, when a user selects the contents of a section, and
when a user selects data within a document that includes a publisher section.
Publisher borders
The Figure below shows the recommended border behavior for subscribers
when borders are shown, when a user selects the contents of a section, and
when a user selects data within a document that includes a subscriber section.
Subscriber borders
If a user tries to select only a portion of a subscriber, you should highlight
the entire contents of the subscriber. A user cannot edit the data contained
If a user cancels a section using the publisher or subscriber options dialog
box, your application should leave the contents of the section within the
document, but you should be sure to remove the borders from this data, as it is
no longer considered a section.
Generally, the appearance and function of publisher and subscriber borders
should be the same across different applications. See the sections entitled
Object-Oriented Graphics Borders, for descriptions of specialized
features for publisher and subscriber borders in word processing,
spreadsheet, or graphics applications.
Referenced by (2):