How This Book Is Organized

This book consists of two parts and appendices. Explanations of the sections of the book follow:

Part 1, "Style Guide," describes style considerations you should follow when designing applications for the Common Desktop Environment.

Chapter 1, Introduction to the Common Desktop Environment is an introduction to the checklist and how to use it.

Chapter 2, Input, Navigation, Selection, and Activation provides information on the keyboard focus model and the input device model, mouse-based and keyboard-based navigation, menu traversal, scrollable component navigation, selection and transfer models, selection actions, and basic activation.

Chapter 3, Drag and Drop provides information on incorporating drag and drop into your application.

Chapter 4, Visual Design provides information on designing icons and other visuals consistent with the Common Desktop Environment style.

Chapter 5, Window and Session Control provides information on window support, window decorations, window navigation, icons, application window management, and session management support.

Chapter 6, Application Design Principles provides information on layout, interaction, support for alternative visuals, messages, and work-in-progress feedback.

Chapter 7, Common Dialogs provides information on creating dialog boxes.

Chapter 8, Application Messages provides information on ways to provide feedback to the user.

Chapter 9, Designing for Accessibility provides information on making software applications accessible to people with disabilities.

Part 2, "Certification Checklist," is the certification checklist, which consists of a checklist divided into several topics:

Chapter 10, Certification Checklist provides the list of requirements for Common Desktop Environment application-level certification.

Appendix A, Keyboard Functions provides information on keyboard functions and keyboard engravings.

Appendix B, Mouse Functions provides information on mouse functions.