Statusbars
A statusbar is an area at the bottom of a window that can be used to display brief information about the status of the application.
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Use statusbars only in application or document windows. Do not use them in dialogs, alerts or other secondary windows.
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Only place a statusbar along the bottom of a window.
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Only use statusbars to display non-critical information. This might include:
- general information about the document or application. For example, current connection status in a network application, or the size of the current document in a text editor.
- information about the task the user is currently performing. For example, while using the selection tool in a drawing application, "Hold Shift to extend the selection"
- progress of a background operation. For example, "Sending to printer", "Printing page 10 of 20", "Printing Complete".
- a description of the control or area of the window under the mouse pointer. For example, "Drop files here to upload them"
Remember that statusbars are normally in the user's peripheral vision, and can even be turned off altogether using the application's menu item. The user may therefore never see anything you display there, unless they know when and where to look for it.
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When there is no interesting status to report, leave a status bar panel blank rather than displaying something uninformative like "Ready". This way, when something interesting does appear in the statusbar, the user is more likely to notice it.
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If you want to make all or part of your statusbar interactive, use the following conventions:
- Inlaid appearance for areas that respond to a double click
- Flat appearance for areas that are not interactive
In Figure 6-30, the appearance indicates that the left area would respond to a double click (perhaps by saving the document), and the progress indicator on the right is non-interactive.
Ensure that double-clicking in the status area does not provide any functionality that is not also available in the main application menu bar, or by some other accessible means.
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Provide a drag handle in the bottom right corner of the status bar of resizeable windows. Subclasses of GtkStatusbar should use the drag handle provided by that class. A reimplementation of a status bar, which is discouraged, should also reimplement the GtkStatusbar drag handle in both appearance and function.
