Dialogs

This program uses more than 50 dialog windows, commonly known as a 'dialog box', to gather user input for functions and/or setup options.

Modal versus Modeless Dialogs

Dialogs that are modal restrict user input (focus) to only that dialog. It demands input until the user does something to close it. A modal dialog can be either system or application modal. the difference being a system modal dialog prevents focus being directed elsewhere on the Desktop while application modal only prevents focus being directed elsewhere in the application.

A modeless dialog can have the focus shifted to another window.

Desktop Z-Order

FS/2 dialog windows are typically modeless and a child window of the Desktop but owned by FS/2. Therefore, they will appear and remain on top of the FS/2 application window, even when the FS/2 window has the desktop focus. However, FS/2 users may use the F9 key to toggle the window owner between FS/2 and the Desktop. When the owner is the Desktop, the dialog window will be found in the Task List and will respond to activation like any other desktop window with relation to the 'z-ordering' of open Desktop windows. When in this state - and the active Desktop window is the FS/2 main window - pressing the F9 key again will revert it back to a FS/2 owned window and force it on top of the FS/2 window. This implementation is handy, especially when running FS/2 maximized.

Dialog Font

The font used in dialog static text and entry fields within FS/2 may be set by the Dialogs selection in the Settings Notebook, page 4_1. It is recommended that a font no larger than 9.WarpSans Bold be used since the dialog and control sizes are not affected by this setting.

Note: The font for the text associated with radio and checkbox controls is hardcoded to 8.Helv. by the Borland resource compiler and is not affected by the FS/2 Fonts setting (or any other manner of changing fonts).

SciTech Graphics Device Driver Effects

The Scitech Display Doctor (SDD) graphics device driver by SciTech Software, commonly used by the OS, has environment settings that can be set in config.sys and will affect the font used in dialog windows. The most commonly used are:

Read the device driver documentation for additional details.

System Default Font

The OS2.INI file may have an Application Key, named DefaultFont, which sets the default font used by dialogs for all applications. Currently this key is not present following an OS installation and the system uses a default font of 10.SystemPorportional to scale dialogs and their controls. The use of the DefaultFont key is highly desirable as it will override any SDD set conditions and automatically scale dialogs to the size of a user adjustable default font. This can substantially reduce the size of most dialogs when a small font such as 9.WarpSans is used as the default and appropriately resizes dialogs when making resolution changes to the system. An INI editor or a command file may be used to add the default font key if it is missing or edit the key if it exists.

Note: The WPS dialogs are apparently designed with the system default 10.SystemPorportional font (which results in large dialogs) and with the text and control fields are scaled for a fixed font size of 9.WarpSans (small font). If either of the SDDFONTSIZE=SMALL or an OS2.INI DefaultFont smaller than 10.SystemPorportional is used, which reduces the frame and field size to match the font, text clipping will occur in many of the WPS dialogs. This leaves the user with a choice of accepting the WPS dialog text clipping or oversized dialogs in most other applications.

Dialogs in FileStar/2

The dialog windows of FS/2 are alphabetically listed below by the name appearing in the window titlebar:

 * - Sizable in horizontal axis
 ** - Sizable in vertical axis
 *** - Sizable in both axis

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