On Oct 26, 2013, at 6:42 AM, David Delmonte <ddelmo...@mac.com> wrote:

> I was thinking that for both adding a new record, or selecting from a set, an 
> NSSheet could work quite nicely. 
> But I don't know if this is an appropriate use off NSSheet  it looks like 
> they are more commonly used as alerts

Sheets are used for all sorts of things, including adding content and making 
choices, so that’s not an issue.

You do want to think a bit before using a sheet, because it is modal: the user 
can’t interact with the document any more until the sheet is dismissed. In a 
design like yours this will be frustrating if the user is halfway through 
entering a new record and then finds s/he has to look up an existing record, 
maybe to copy fields from it. Modal designs are often discouraged. (Larry 
Tesler, a GUI pioneer at Xerox PARC and Apple, has a car with license plate NO 
MODES.)

Alternatives that aren’t modal include:
• Insert a blank row into the table view and let the user edit the fields.
• Slide in a data-entry view at one edge of the window with form fields and Add 
and Cancel buttons.
• Open a floating panel with the data entry UI.

—Jens
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