The Microsoft Manual of Style: The User Interface

Webpage controls, dialog boxes, and property sheets

Here are some specifics on webpage controls, dialog boxes, and property sheets.

Webpage controls

Webpages contain such controls as hyperlinks, text boxes, and download buttons. A typical webpage with controls looks as follows.

Dialog boxes

Dialog boxes contain such controls as command buttons and list boxes through which users can carry out a particular command or task. For example, in the Save As dialog box, the user must indicate in which folder and under what name the document should be saved. A typical dialog box looks as follows.

Property sheets

A property sheet is a dialog box that displays information about an object (the object’s properties). For example, the Internet Properties property sheet shows information about Internet security settings. Property sheets contain such controls as check boxes and sliders. A typical property sheet looks as follows.

In general, avoid using dialog box or property sheet as a descriptor. If you cannot avoid a descriptor, use dialog box for both property sheets and dialog boxes unless your project style sheet provides different guidance. The distinction may be important for a technical audience, but do not distinguish in content for a general audience. For more information, also see dialog boxes, Document conventions (Chapter 6), User interface text.