How to swap OK and Cancel in dialog boxes?

I have a major problem with Windows dialog boxes. Everything in my life is affirmative action to the right (stereo volume control, car accelerator, etc). Linux and Mac have OK on the right, that's fine. Even though I virtually never use those two OSes, non-computer things in life have ingrained it into my head that yes is on the right and no is on the left. Almost 50% of the time I subconsciously click the wrong button in a Windows dialog box because I expect OK to be on the right. "Do you want to save this?" "Yes, oh no, I pressed cancel!"

There must be some utility I can use to swap these buttons over?

On 23/08/2020 15:33, Commander Kinsey wrote:
I have a major problem with Windows dialog boxes.* Everything in my life
is affirmative action to the right (stereo volume control, car
accelerator, etc).* Linux and Mac have OK on the right, that's fine.
Even though I virtually never use those two OSes, non-computer things in
life have ingrained it into my head that yes is on the right and no is
on the left.* Almost 50% of the time I subconsciously click the wrong
button in a Windows dialog box because I expect OK to be on the right.
"Do you want to save this?"* "Yes, oh no, I pressed cancel!"

There must be some utility I can use to swap these buttons over?

Try a mirror, Commander.

On 8/23/20 10:33 AM, this is what Commander Kinsey wrote:
I have a major problem with Windows dialog boxes.Â* Everything in my life is affirmative action to the right (stereo volume control, car
accelerator, etc).Â* Linux and Mac have OK on the right, that's fine.Â* Even though I virtually never use those two OSes, non-computer things
in life have ingrained it into my head that yes is on the right and no is on the left.Â* Almost 50% of the time I subconsciously click the
wrong button in a Windows dialog box because I expect OK to be on the right.Â* "Do you want to save this?"Â* "Yes, oh no, I pressed cancel!"

There must be some utility I can use to swap these buttons over?

Probably not. It's in the code (at least when I did programming, some years back) you just called the messagebox() and you had a choice for
fixed buttons and the c library would put them up and return you the results of which you hit.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ser-messagebox

To indicate the buttons displayed in the message box, specify one of the following values.
MB_ABORTRETRYIGNORE The message box contains three push buttons: Abort, Retry, and Ignore.
MB_CANCELTRYCONTINUE The message box contains three push buttons: Cancel, Try Again, Continue. Use this message box type instead of
MB_ABORTRETRYIGNORE.
MB_HELP Adds a Help button to the message box. When the user clicks the Help button or presses F1, the system sends a WM_HELP message to
the owner.
MB_OK The message box contains one push button: OK. This is the default.
MB_OKCANCEL The message box contains two push buttons: OK and Cancel.
MB_RETRYCANCEL The message box contains two push buttons: Retry and Cancel.
MB_YESNO The message box contains two push buttons: Yes and No.
MB_YESNOCANCEL The message box contains three push buttons: Yes, No, and Cancel.

Now that said, and you find some reversed, them I'd edit my comment and say some programmer is using a different library, old/newer, or
forcing a position someway. But what do I know.

Al

"Big Al" wrote

| There must be some utility I can use to swap these buttons over?
|
| Probably not. It's in the code (at least when I did programming, some
years back) you just called the messagebox() and you had a choice for
| fixed buttons and the c library would put them up and return you the
results of which you hit.
|

Yes. It's in the basic API. The only option would
be to make one's own boxes. But even then, it
would be insanity for anyone to reverse the API
in order to satisfy the occasional Mac visitor.

My trackball allows me to have the mouse jump to
the default button. The default can be set. For instance,
Yes,No will always be Yes,No, but it's possible to
set focus on either button. Again, that's something
a programmer can do for a specific message, but there's
no override in personal display settings.

Commander Kinsey wrote:
I have a major problem with Windows dialog boxes. Everything in my life
is affirmative action to the right (stereo volume control, car
accelerator, etc). Linux and Mac have OK on the right, that's fine.
Even though I virtually never use those two OSes, non-computer things in
life have ingrained it into my head that yes is on the right and no is on
the left. Almost 50% of the time I subconsciously click the wrong button
in a Windows dialog box because I expect OK to be on the right. "Do you
want to save this?" "Yes, oh no, I pressed cancel!"

There must be some utility I can use to swap these buttons over?


Don’t have an answer — but used to be on Linux there were dialogs almost
the exact same but with the buttons reversed. It was insane.

--
Personal attacks from those who troll show their own insecurity. They
cannot use reason to show the message to be wrong so they try to feel
somehow superior by attacking the messenger. They cling to their attacks
and ignore the message time and time again.

Big Al,

Probably not. It's in the code (at least when I did programming, some
years back) you just called the messagebox()

For the OS provided dialogs you mentioned I could imagine a dumb app running
at the background which catches dialogs being created, checks the bottom
rows button IDs, and moves the button with the IDOK, IDYES or IDCONTINUE id
to the rightmost position (posibly swapping it with the one already there).

Now that said, and you find some reversed, ...

But that will ofcourse cause a problem with dialogs that are specifically
designed for certain programs, and which could have buttons with "random"
IDs at those places.

... them I'd edit my comment and say some programmer is using a different
library

And you would than need to edit your edit, as specific-to-the-program
dialogs are often just part of the programs executable. Sorry.

But, happy editing. :-)

@Kinsly
Due to the above "designed for a specific program" problem I don't think you
will be able to find a utility that will always work - and having one that
doesn't work for all cases may well be worse than having nothing at all.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

On 8/23/20 12:31 PM, this is what Snit wrote:
Commander Kinsey wrote:
I have a major problem with Windows dialog boxes. Everything in my life
is affirmative action to the right (stereo volume control, car
accelerator, etc). Linux and Mac have OK on the right, that's fine.
Even though I virtually never use those two OSes, non-computer things in
life have ingrained it into my head that yes is on the right and no is on
the left. Almost 50% of the time I subconsciously click the wrong button
in a Windows dialog box because I expect OK to be on the right. "Do you
want to save this?" "Yes, oh no, I pressed cancel!"

There must be some utility I can use to swap these buttons over?


Don’t have an answer — but used to be on Linux there were dialogs almost
the exact same but with the buttons reversed. It was insane.

I'm there now. +1

Also the save or ok buttons are not always on the same side.

On 23 Aug 2020, Commander Kinsey wrote
(in article op.0ps315mnwdg98l@glass):

I have a major problem with Windows dialog boxes. Everything in my life is
affirmative action to the right (stereo volume control, car accelerator,
etc). Linux and Mac have OK on the right, that's fine. Even though I
virtually never use those two OSes, non-computer things in life have
ingrained it into my head that yes is on the right and no is on the left.
Almost 50% of the time I subconsciously click the wrong button in a Windows
dialog box because I expect OK to be on the right. "Do you want to save
this?" "Yes, oh no, I pressed cancel!"

There must be some utility I can use to swap these buttons over?

I suspect that you won’t want to hear it, but the default on Macs is to
have OK on the right... And, back in the days of the Resource Editor, it was
possible, though very much advised against, to dig up ResEdit (that’s
ResEdit,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ResEdit not RegEdit) and make changes
to the dialogs. I used to use ResEdit to do things like add command-key
combinations, change the names of menus, change the colours of menus, and
generally play around inside apps and system files, though only on a copy.
Many was the time that what seemed like a minor change (setting the
Finder’s menus to be black with white text, for example) proved to be a
Very Bad Idea.

How to switch defaults on Windows? Simple: convince Microsoft to modify their
APIs and to thereby force all Windows devs to swap the OK and cancel button
positions. I’m sure that they’ll get right on it. Then all Windows devs
will be happy to update all their apps to the new APIs.

Or maybe not...

Or, perhaps you could mess about with a registry editor. I’m pretty sure
that RegEdit won’t cut it, but you could try... And there is a resource
editor out for Windows. I’ve never used it, but you could try it.

Big Al wrote:
On 8/23/20 12:31 PM, this is what Snit wrote:
Commander Kinsey wrote:
I have a major problem with Windows dialog boxes. Everything in my life
is affirmative action to the right (stereo volume control, car
accelerator, etc). Linux and Mac have OK on the right, that's fine.
Even though I virtually never use those two OSes, non-computer things in
life have ingrained it into my head that yes is on the right and no is on
the left. Almost 50% of the time I subconsciously click the wrong button
in a Windows dialog box because I expect OK to be on the right. "Do you
want to save this?" "Yes, oh no, I pressed cancel!"

There must be some utility I can use to swap these buttons over?


Don’t have an answer — but used to be on Linux there were dialogs almost
the exact same but with the buttons reversed. It was insane.

I'm there now. +1

Also the save or ok buttons are not always on the same side.


It is truly insane.

--
Personal attacks from those who troll show their own insecurity. They
cannot use reason to show the message to be wrong so they try to feel
somehow superior by attacking the messenger. They cling to their attacks
and ignore the message time and time again.

Wolffan wrote:
On 23 Aug 2020, Commander Kinsey wrote
(in article op.0ps315mnwdg98l@glass):

I have a major problem with Windows dialog boxes. Everything in my life is
affirmative action to the right (stereo volume control, car accelerator,
etc). Linux and Mac have OK on the right, that's fine. Even though I
virtually never use those two OSes, non-computer things in life have
ingrained it into my head that yes is on the right and no is on the left.
Almost 50% of the time I subconsciously click the wrong button in a Windows
dialog box because I expect OK to be on the right. "Do you want to save
this?" "Yes, oh no, I pressed cancel!"

There must be some utility I can use to swap these buttons over?

I suspect that you won’t want to hear it, but the default on Macs is to
have OK on the right... And, back in the days of the Resource Editor, it was
possible, though very much advised against, to dig up ResEdit (that’s
ResEdit,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ResEdit not RegEdit) and make changes
to the dialogs. I used to use ResEdit to do things like add command-key
combinations, change the names of menus, change the colours of menus, and
generally play around inside apps and system files, though only on a copy.
Many was the time that what seemed like a minor change (setting the
Finder’s menus to be black with white text, for example) proved to be a
Very Bad Idea.

I used it some. Still have keyboard layouts I made with it and they still
work on macOS.

How to switch defaults on Windows? Simple: convince Microsoft to modify their
APIs and to thereby force all Windows devs to swap the OK and cancel button
positions. I’m sure that they’ll get right on it. Then all Windows devs
will be happy to update all their apps to the new APIs.

Or maybe not...

Or, perhaps you could mess about with a registry editor. I’m pretty sure
that RegEdit won’t cut it, but you could try... And there is a resource
editor out for Windows. I’ve never used it, but you could try it.





--
Personal attacks from those who troll show their own insecurity. They
cannot use reason to show the message to be wrong so they try to feel
somehow superior by attacking the messenger. They cling to their attacks
and ignore the message time and time again.

In article s.com,
Wolffan wrote:

I have a major problem with Windows dialog boxes. Everything in my life is
affirmative action to the right (stereo volume control, car accelerator,
etc). Linux and Mac have OK on the right, that's fine. Even though I
virtually never use those two OSes, non-computer things in life have
ingrained it into my head that yes is on the right and no is on the left.
Almost 50% of the time I subconsciously click the wrong button in a Windows
dialog box because I expect OK to be on the right. "Do you want to save
this?" "Yes, oh no, I pressed cancel!"

There must be some utility I can use to swap these buttons over?

I suspect that you won¹t want to hear it, but the default on Macs is to
have OK on the right... And, back in the days of the Resource Editor, it was
possible, though very much advised against, to dig up ResEdit (that¹s
ResEdit,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ResEdit not RegEdit) and make changes
to the dialogs. I used to use ResEdit to do things like add command-key
combinations, change the names of menus, change the colours of menus, and
generally play around inside apps and system files, though only on a copy.
Many was the time that what seemed like a minor change (setting the
Finder¹s menus to be black with white text, for example) proved to be a
Very Bad Idea.

actually, it was widely done without any adverse effect, unless the app
was poorly written and made assumptions it should not have made.

How to switch defaults on Windows? Simple: convince Microsoft to modify their
APIs and to thereby force all Windows devs to swap the OK and cancel button
positions. I¹m sure that they¹ll get right on it. Then all Windows devs
will be happy to update all their apps to the new APIs.

Or maybe not...

Or, perhaps you could mess about with a registry editor. I¹m pretty sure
that RegEdit won¹t cut it, but you could try... And there is a resource
editor out for Windows. I¹ve never used it, but you could try it.

there might a way to move the buttons, but it's not worth the trouble.

nospam wrote:
In article s.com,
Wolffan wrote:

I have a major problem with Windows dialog boxes. Everything in my life is
affirmative action to the right (stereo volume control, car accelerator,
etc). Linux and Mac have OK on the right, that's fine. Even though I
virtually never use those two OSes, non-computer things in life have
ingrained it into my head that yes is on the right and no is on the left.
Almost 50% of the time I subconsciously click the wrong button in a Windows
dialog box because I expect OK to be on the right. "Do you want to save
this?" "Yes, oh no, I pressed cancel!"

There must be some utility I can use to swap these buttons over?

I suspect that you won¹t want to hear it, but the default on Macs is to
have OK on the right... And, back in the days of the Resource Editor, it was
possible, though very much advised against, to dig up ResEdit (that¹s
ResEdit,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ResEdit not RegEdit) and make changes
to the dialogs. I used to use ResEdit to do things like add command-key
combinations, change the names of menus, change the colours of menus, and
generally play around inside apps and system files, though only on a copy.
Many was the time that what seemed like a minor change (setting the
Finder¹s menus to be black with white text, for example) proved to be a
Very Bad Idea.

actually, it was widely done without any adverse effect, unless the app
was poorly written and made assumptions it should not have made.

In which case it had bad effects.

Unlike using Preference files to open apps which seemed to work pretty much
universally.

How to switch defaults on Windows? Simple: convince Microsoft to modify their
APIs and to thereby force all Windows devs to swap the OK and cancel button
positions. I¹m sure that they¹ll get right on it. Then all Windows devs
will be happy to update all their apps to the new APIs.

Or maybe not...

Or, perhaps you could mess about with a registry editor. I¹m pretty sure
that RegEdit won¹t cut it, but you could try... And there is a resource
editor out for Windows. I¹ve never used it, but you could try it.

there might a way to move the buttons, but it's not worth the trouble.



--
Personal attacks from those who troll show their own insecurity. They
cannot use reason to show the message to be wrong so they try to feel
somehow superior by attacking the messenger. They cling to their attacks
and ignore the message time and time again.

In article op.0ps315mnwdg98l@glass, says...

I have a major problem with Windows dialog boxes. Everything in my life is affirmative action to the right (stereo volume control, car accelerator, etc). Linux and Mac have OK on the right, that's fine. Even though I virtually never use those two OSes, non-computer things in life have ingrained it into my head that yes is on the right and no is on the left. Almost 50% of the time I subconsciously click the
wrong button in a Windows dialog box because I expect OK to be on the right. "Do you want to save this?" "Yes, oh no, I pressed cancel!"

There must be some utility I can use to swap these buttons over?

It might help to use the keyboard instead of a pointer. Get used to spotting
which option is highlighted (space or enter will activate) and use the tab key
to change if needed.

--

Phil, London

On 8/23/20 9:33 AM, Commander Kinsey wrote:
I have a major problem with Windows dialog boxes.* Everything in my life
is affirmative action to the right (stereo volume control, car
accelerator, etc).* Linux and Mac have OK on the right, that's fine.
Even though I virtually never use those two OSes, non-computer things in
life have ingrained it into my head that yes is on the right and no is
on the left.* Almost 50% of the time I subconsciously click the wrong
button in a Windows dialog box because I expect OK to be on the right.
"Do you want to save this?"* "Yes, oh no, I pressed cancel!"

There must be some utility I can use to swap these buttons over?

How about clicking on "OK" or "cancel" rather than blindly clicking on a
spot that "feels right"?

--
"We are starting a movement in the state legislatures...to forbid the
installation of clinics that dispense contraceptives." [Phyllis
Schlafly, President, Eagle Forum]

On 8/23/20 9:33 AM, Commander Kinsey wrote:
I have a major problem with Windows dialog boxes.* Everything in my life
is affirmative action to the right (stereo volume control, car
accelerator, etc).* Linux and Mac have OK on the right, that's fine.
Even though I virtually never use those two OSes, non-computer things in
life have ingrained it into my head that yes is on the right and no is
on the left.* Almost 50% of the time I subconsciously click the wrong
button in a Windows dialog box because I expect OK to be on the right.
"Do you want to save this?"* "Yes, oh no, I pressed cancel!"

There must be some utility I can use to swap these buttons over?

I never noticed this problem until someone else mentioned it. I would
click on the appropriate box like "OK" not just some location within the
window.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"I know one man who was impotent who gave AIDS to his wife and the only
thing they did was kiss." [Pat Robertson]