Tools: Creating sample dialog boxes for screen captures

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

In general, most of us get good screen captures of real applications using
tools such as SnagIt. However, there are occasional situations in which it
would be helpful to create your own dialog box. Sometimes the dialog or
window already exists in the software you're documenting, but is difficult
to capture properly (e.g., because of unsuitable magnification or poor
choice of text vs. background colors); sometimes you want to present a quick
prototype to developers to illustrate a suggested interface improvement; and
sometimes you need to create something entirely fictitious to illustrate a
point. (That's the source of this current message, by the way; I'm writing a
chapter in an upcoming textbook and needed to mock up some illustrative
screenshots to match an example I described.) Last but not least, we
occasionally see conversations on techwr-l that lead up to a recommendation
that the techwhirler create a mockup of the screen in Corel or another
graphics program.

Although you could certainly plead with the developers to use their
interface design tools to mock up the dialog box for you, you can also do
the work yourself if you have access to a copy of Microsoft Excel. (Other
software may offer similar features.) Trust me, this is easier than it looks
from the description. <g>

With a new document open in Excel:
1. Open the Tools menu, and select Macros, followed by Visual Basic Editor
(VBE).
2. In VBE, open the Insert menu and select UserForm.
3. Excel pops up a window named "UserForm1", accompanied by a palette that
contains various icons representing things that appear in dialog boxes
(e.g., checkboxes).
4. Drag the appropriate dialog box elements from the tools palette into the
UserForm1 window, and edit their labels by clicking on the text (e.g.,
change "Label1" to "User name:").
5. Use the Format menu to arrange and align the items you've created.
6. Open the View menu and select Properties Window.
7. Double-click on the form you just created in the list that appears at the
left of the screen.
8. In the properties window at the bottom of the screen, find the field
labeled Caption and enter the text that will appear within the dark blue
border at the top of the dialog box.

Voila! Instant, professional-looking dialog box.

To display the dialog box so you can grab it with your screen capture
software:
1. Open the Tools menu and select Macros.
2. Name the macro, and click the Create button.
3. Enter the following text:
	Sub test()
		UserForm1.Show
	End Sub
4. Close VBE. You'll now find yourself back in Excel.
5. Open the Tools menu and select Macros, then Macros.
6. Run the macro you just created.
7. Smile and look foolish; you just created your very own dialog box.
Capture the screenshot.

Thanks to my colleague Marc Arsenault for revealing this tip and providing
the VBE expertise to write the macro.

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
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"In seeking wisdom, the first step is silence, the second listening, the
third remembering, the fourth practicing, the fifth -- teaching
others."--Ibn Gabirol, poet and philosopher (c. 1022-1058)

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