File dialog

In computing, a file dialog (also called File Selector/Chooser, file requester, or open and save dialog) is a dialog box-type graphical control element that allows users to choose a file from the file system. File dialogs differ from file managers as they are not intended for file management (although some offer simple operations such as folder creation), rather they are intended for the opening and saving of files. Before file dialogs, most programs requested files as a command line argument or as an exact file path. Others required users to select a file from the file manager.

File Dialog Box is a box where it contains files. There are several types of file dialogs. The two most common being a two column view file dialog and a mini file browser dialog. Others include thumbnail view (for photos) and Meta-data (For music). There are several reasons for the many varieties of dialogs. First of all there is no single standard design, so a program may implement their own for any purpose. Many GUI toolkits do not provide a file dialog, so an application is forced to use its own.

The two column view is one of the primary file dialog types. It uses two columns. One for folders, and another for files. Other common features include the current folder name, a searchbox and buttons for basic file manipulation.

A mini file manager is often used. It represents the normal file manager, but it is restricted in its operations.

Usually used by image related applications, a gallery of files are shown which allow a file to be chosen graphically.

File dialogs have been a subject of much usability debate. As a graphical control element receiving constant use, ease of use is a major factor in their design. The most common reasons for file dialog usability problems include:

Many widget libraries toolkits such as Motif and GTK+ have been criticized for their lack of it. Early versions of Microsoft Windows also suffered from problems, mainly from the DOS legacy behind it. However, most of these are being addressed as more legacy programs are being converted to use newer, more usable file dialogs.

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