Common Techniques and Controls

Common Interface Controls

SAIS is a web based software system and, as such, it requires you to use a number of input controls to create, edit and submit content. You will probably be familiar with most or all of these.

Control Name	Appearance/Description
Text Boxes	Allows you to type text into a form (e.g. a search keyword, an email address).
Drop-down Lists	Lets you select from a mutually exclusive set of options. Click on the arrow icon to see all the options in the list and then click an option to select it.
List Boxes	Lets you select one or more items from a set of options. Click on an option to select it, and then click the and buttons to move the selections between the list boxes. To select multiple contiguous options, hold down the SHIFT key, click the first option and then click the last option. To select multiple non-contiguous options, hold down the CTRL key, then click on the required options.
Check Boxes	A check box can be selected or cleared to turn an option on or off. More than one check box can be selected.
Option Buttons	These are round buttons that are used to select only one of a group of mutually exclusive options.
Command Buttons	These buttons initiate an action (usually submitting form data to the SAIS server).

Table 3: List of Controls

Common Techniques

Using Tabbed Forms

Some of the screens in SAIS use tabbed forms to present information. Tabbed forms are effectively layers of information presented on a single web page. This feature is effective when there is a lot of related information to present, and avoids the need to load multiple web pages.

Figure 3: Tabbed Forms

Navigating between the tabs is simply a matter of clicking on the tab that you want to view. The Create a New Graph screen is a good example of a tabbed form in SAIS.

Figure 4: Create a New Graph Tabbed Form

Tabbed forms may have a number of command buttons associated with them (e.g. Build the Graph).

If a command button is situated within the border of a single tab, the action of the button applies only to that tab.

However, buttons that are situated outside of the tab border apply their actions to the entire set of tabs.

Getting Help for SAIS

SAIS has a full context sensitive help system that can be accessed from most screens by clicking the Help button in the top right hand corner of the screen.

The help system has its own navigation buttons that enable you to quickly find what you're looking for. There is also a full Table of Contents.

Figure 5: SAIS Help Button Location

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