Glossary Entry: Standard Dialog
Quick Definition
A "dialog box" (or just simply "dialog") is a special window used by a program to get some basic information from the user. To make things easier for everyone, operating systems provide some common (ie, standardized) dialogs for software to use. Exactly how many there are and what they look like depends on the operating system in question, but the most common ones are the "Open File", "Save File", and "Choose Color" dialogs.
Providing standard dialogs like this saves everybody a lot of time and effort, as developers don't need to make their own version of a simple "Open File" prompt for every program they make, and users can learn to expect the standardized controls when they perform certain everyday actions.
Providing standard dialogs like this saves everybody a lot of time and effort, as developers don't need to make their own version of a simple "Open File" prompt for every program they make, and users can learn to expect the standardized controls when they perform certain everyday actions.
Example
A typical "Open File" dialog on Windows 10.
Back to the list of technical terms