Group Box

Purpose

A group box is a labeled rectangular area that surrounds a set of related controls. A frame is an unlabeled rectangular area that can be used to mark relationships.

Group box and frame are a way to show visual relationships; it provides no additional functionality.

Guidelines

Is this the right control?

• Always use a group box to arrange related controls.

• Use a frame to arrange related controls that cannot be labeled.

• Don’t group single controls.

• Show relationship by layout only.

Behavior

• Don’t nest grouping elements; use layout to show relationships within a group.

• Don’t place controls in group box caption.

• Don’t disable groups. To indicate that a group of controls does not currently apply, disable all the controls within the group, but not the group itself.

• Put a Splitter between aligned grouping controls.

Appearance

• Label the group box with a descriptive caption.

• Don’t assign an access key to the group box caption.

• Set the group box or frame shadow to ‘flat’ to provide the consistent spacing required to convey relationship.