Information to Present in Error Dialogs

A good error dialog or warning dialog gives the user the following information:

• What happened (from the user's point of view)

• Why it happened, in simple language that the user can relate to the current task and environment

• How to fix the problem

If the information cannot be presented in four or five lines of the error dialog, consider adding a help button to the dialog and link it to a topic in the help volume for your application.

For more information on writing messages, see the Common Desktop Environment: Internationalization Programmer's Guide.