This gallery is a collection of File Open dialogs that have
been created for Windows over the years. If you thought opening
a file was a simple task you thought wrong.
Outlook 2000 - this dialog comes up when you need to select a
mail template. Notice that you can't enter any information in
any location. This one's a disaster.
Visual Studio .net provides an interesting way to open a file from
the web.
Explorer.exe: file browse when you are looking for something to
run. (Win2K)
Word2000.exe File Open:
It looks similar to the Windows 2000 file open but notice that
it's not resizable, the icons are different. The open button is
a drop down, tools drop down has been added. Places bar stays
depressed after you release the button.
Outlook 2000 Insert File. Same as Word 2000 but My
Network Places is gone for some reason..
Word 2000 Save As Web Page
My Network Places is replaced by Web Folders. My network
places is still gone. The MyDocuments folder is taking on the
name of the folder that MyDocuments was redirected to.
Vizact 2000 insert hyperlink dialog. Luckily this
application died a quick death. Notice the history button is
gone. For inserting a hyperlink the history of recently visited
pages would have actually been useful.
FrontPage 2000 Insert File. Blast from the past. This is a
classic style File Open dialog.
A Java program running in Win2K. If plagiarism is flattery
what do you call this?
Outlook Express Insert Attachment. Another blast from the past.
Notice that this one is not resizable
America Online Insert Picture
PhotoShop File Open
Clip Gallery 5.0: Import Clips
Windows 2000 mouse cursor browser.
FrontPage 2000 Create Hyperlink:
Word 2000 Create Hyperlink. Am I the only one scared by this
screen? I invite anyone to explain the logic and flow of this
dialog because it just does not make sense to me. In
case you thought it couldn't get worse they decided to add more
icons and buttons to this dialog in Word 2003:
I took a
minimalist approach and designed this dialog myself for
comparison. My dialog would accomplish the primary needs of most
users with a fraction of the interface components. A core
principle in UI design is to focus on the core problems and
allow for advanced exceptions. The Office interface makes the
exceptions part of the core interface.
(The drop down would contain: Recently Open Files, Browsed
Pages, Current Folder,Recent Email Addresses) The address box
itself would have auto-complete.
Outlook 2000 Insert Item. Why is interesting a file from an
email hierarchy is completely different from inserting a file
from a folder hierarchy. It's the same exact thing but
they choose to use completely different UI.
Photo Draw 2000: Open Image from Web. This is a weird
one, you can actually browse the web and select an image from
the browser inside the dialog. Not a bad idea however webpages
don't lend themselves well to non-resizable dialogs.
Visual Source Safe 6
Open Data Base Visual Source Safe 6
During the setup program of Adobe Photoshop 7 you see this
strange dialog for choosing a folder.
Speaking of Photoshop, in the CS version there is an entirely
separate way to open files using the "File Browser"
This dialog has no shame since it's design is clean and well
thought out. The visual basic file open dialog box allows
you to quickly see recently opened files. Simple, elegant and
useful.
File Open dialog from Gnome
File open from Mathematica
Here is an interesting comparison of a file dialog in Linux and
a another split left/right design dialog from windows 3.1
This gem is from Adobe PhotoShop CS2. This is the smallest that
the dialog can get. And yes your eyes are not deceiving you that
is a tree view control inside the file open space, and even more
interesting is that it allows you to browse into the Control
Panel as if it was a normal folder. There are three or
more alternative ways to view file open dialogs in Photoshop.
Instead of having one way that works well they have 4 ways.
Also see the File Print Hall of Shame
Do you have an addition to the File Open Hall of Shame?
Email me:
support@raizlabs.com and tell us about it.
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