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The way I handle this is as follows (this is an excerpt from my own style
guide, the information is gathered from almost everywhere, mostly from this
list, thanks all):
- Screen: the actual visual portion of the monitor on which you view
windows, dialog boxes, DOS characters and the like. Never use screen when
you are referring to only a part of it
- Window: in all graphical environments a window is a control that you can
open or close, maximize, minimize and resize. It has more or less
consistent controls, some or which may be optional, such as a menu bar, a
status bar, horizontal and vertical scroll bars, a title bar, and a button
bar. All of these surround an empty rectangle in which a program can
display a document (for example) or contain child windows.
The parent window displays on the desktop, which is the background graphic
that is shown whenever the graphical environment is running and which does
not have window controls itself. A maximized window may be the same size as
the desktop and therefore obscure it. Windows are opened and closed (you
exit a program).
- Dialog box: in MS-Windows, a dialog box is not a window. It is a control
that you generally cannot resize and does not have typical window controls.
- Message box: a control that you generally cannot resize and contains a
message and one, two or three buttons; but it doesn't include edit boxes,
list boxes, combo boxes, radio buttons, or anything else you might find in
a dialog box.
As for read only fields, I would just describe the field, explain that the
field shows or displays this and that information that can not be changed.
Yet two more cents
Jeroen Hendrix
PolyDoc
the Netherlands
Mail to: jhe -at- polydoc -dot- com
Web: www.polydoc.com
