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Graphical computer applications with a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) are those whose windows reside under a single parent window (usually with the exception of modal windows), as opposed to all windows being separate from each other (single document interface). The initialism MDI is usually not expanded. In the usability community, there has been much debate over which interface type is preferable. Generally SDI is seen as more useful in cases where users work with more than one application. Companies have used both interfaces with mixed responses. For example, Microsoft has changed its Office applications from SDI to MDI mode and then back to SDI, although the degree of implementation varies from one component to another. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (800x642, 86 KB)Example of MDI implementation in Photoshop File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (800x642, 86 KB)Example of MDI implementation in Photoshop File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Adobe Photoshop is a bitmap graphics editor (with some text and vector graphics capabilities) published by Adobe Systems. ...
In user interface design, a modal window (often called modal dialog because the window is almost always used to display a dialog) is a child window created by a parent application, usually a dialog box, which has to be closed before the user can continue to operate the application. ...
Inkscape uses an SDI In graphical user interfaces, a single document interface or SDI is a method of organizing graphical user interface applications into individual windows that the operating systems window manager handles separately. ...
Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for. ...
Usability is a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal. ...
Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ...
Microsoft Office is a suite of productivity programs created or purchased by Microsoft and developed for Microsoft Windows, and Apple Computers Mac OS and Mac OS X operating systems. ...
The disadvantage of MDI usually cited is the lack of information about the currently opened windows: In order to view a list of windows open in MDI applications, the user typically has to select a specific menu ("window list" or something similar), if this option is available at all. With an SDI application, the window manager's task bar or task manager displays the currently opened windows. In recent years, applications have increasingly added "task-bars" and "tabs" to show the currently opened windows in an MDI application, which has made this criticism somewhat obsolete. Some people use a different name for this interface, "tabbed document interface" (TDI). When tabs are used to manage windows, individual ones can usually not be resized. In computing, the task bar is a term for an application desktop bar which is most often used for the Windows 95 and later operating systems. ...
Task manager on Windows XP A task manager is a program used to provide information about the processes and programs running on a computer, as well as the general status of the computer. ...
In the area of graphical user interfaces, a tabbed document interface (TDI) is one that allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window, using tabs to navigate between them. ...
Nearly all graphical user interface toolkits to date provide at least one solution for designing MDIs. GTK+ lacks any standardized support for MDI. The Java GUI toolkit, Swing, for instance, provides the class javax.swing.JDesktopPane which serves as a container for individual frames (class javax.swing.JInternalFrame). A graphical user interface (or GUI, often pronounced gooey), is a particular case of user interface for interacting with a computer which employs graphical images and widgets in addition to text to represent the information and actions available to the user. ...
The GIMP Toolkit—abbreviated, and almost exclusively known, as GTK+—is one of the two most popular widget toolkits for the X Window System for creating graphical user interfaces. ...
Java is an object-oriented programming language developed by Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. ...
Example Swing widgets in Java 5. ...
Compared to single document interface
Advantages - Many child windows do not fill up the OS task management interface, as they are hierarchically organized. Users simply switch applications.
- With MDI (and also TDI), a single menu bar and/or toolbar is shared between all child windows, reducing clutter and increasing efficient use of screen space.
- All child windows for an application can be hidden/shown/minimized/maximized as a whole.
- Without an MDI frame window, floating toolbars from one application can clutter the workspace of other applications, potentially confusing users with the jumble of interfaces.
- Features such as "Tile" and "Cascade" can be implemented for the child windows.
In the area of graphical user interfaces, a tabbed document interface (TDI) is one that allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window, using tabs to navigate between them. ...
Disadvantages - Cannot be used successfully on desktops using multiple monitors.
- MDI can make it more difficult to work with several applications at once, by restricting the ways in which windows from multiple applications can be arranged together.
- The shared menu changes, which may cause confusion to some users.
- MDI child windows behave differently from those in single document interface applications, requiring users to learn two subtly different windowing concepts. Similarly, the MDI parent window behaves like the desktop in many respects, but has enough differences to confuse some users.
- Many window managers have built-in support for manipulating groups of separate windows, which is typically more flexible than MDI in that windows can be grouped and ungrouped arbitrarily. A typical policy is to group automatically windows that belong to the same application. This arguably makes MDI redundant by providing a solution to the same problem.
Inkscape uses an SDI In graphical user interfaces, a single document interface or SDI is a method of organizing graphical user interface applications into individual windows that the operating systems window manager handles separately. ...
Application Examples - Internet Explorer 6: This is a typical SDI application
- Visual Studio 6 development environment: This is a typical modern implementation of MDI
- Visual Studio .NET: MDI or TDI with "Window" menu, but not both
- Firefox: TDI
- Opera: MDI combined with TDI
- Eudora (e-mail client) (Microsoft Windows version only)
- GIMP: Floating windows (limited MDI is available via "Deweirdifier" plugin)
- GIMPshop: A fork of the GIMP edited to be more user-friendly for Adobe Photoshop users. Note: the Windows version (still in beta form) has the "Deweirdifier" plug in built-in
- Adobe Photoshop: Floating windows in Mac version; MDI in Windows XP version. In newer versions of Photoshop, toolbars can move outside the frame window, but child windows cannot.
- Adobe Acrobat: Purely MDI until version 7.0. (Microsoft Windows version only)
- Microsoft Excel 2003: Excel is SDI if you start new instances of the application, but classic MDI if you click the "File → New" menu (except the child windows appear on the OS taskbar)
- Microsoft Word 2003: Up to Office 97, Word was MDI. However, from 2000 onwards, Word is a Multiple Top-Level Windows Interface application, thus exposing to shell as many individual SDI instances while the operating system recognizes it as a single instance of an MDI Application. MFC (which Microsoft Office is loosely based upon) supports this metaphor from version 7.0, as a new Feature in Visual Studio 2002.
- UltraEdit: Combination of MDI & TDI (a true MDI interface with a tab bar for quick access).
- Notepad++: TDI
- Macromedia Studio under Windows uses a hybrid interface. If document windows are maximized, as they are by default, the program presents a TDI, however, if the windows are un-maximized it presents an MDI.
- Corel Wordperfect: MDI, although a user can open multiple instances of WP with a single document in each, if they wish to. Version X3 maintains a list of open docs for a given window on the status bar at the bottom of the window, providing a variant of the TDI. (earlier version info needed)
Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE, is a proprietary web browser made by Microsoft and currently available as part of Microsoft Windows. ...
Microsoft Visual Studio is a series of IDEs by Microsoft. ...
The Visual Studio . ...
Firefox redirects here. ...
Opera is an Internet suite which handles common internet-related tasks, including visiting web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, and online chat. ...
Eudora is an e-mail client that was once used widely on the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems. ...
Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary operating systems by Microsoft. ...
The GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP, is a raster graphics editor application with some support for vector graphics. ...
It has been suggested that Scott Moschella be merged into this article or section. ...
In software engineering, a project fork or branch happens when a developer (or a group of them) takes a copy of source code from one software package and starts to independently develop a new package. ...
User Friendly is an online daily comic strip about the staff of a small, fictional internet service provider, Columbia Internet. ...
Software development stages In computer programming, development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ...
Adobe Photoshop, or simply Photoshop, is a highly overpriced graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Systems. ...
Adobe Acrobat was the first software to support Adobe Systems Portable Document Format (PDF). ...
Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary operating systems by Microsoft. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Microsoft Word, or Microsoft Office Word, is Microsofts flagship word processing software. ...
Microsoft Foundation Classes, or MFC, is a Microsoft library that wraps portions of the Windows API in C++ classes, forming an application framework. ...
Microsoft Office is a suite of productivity programs created or purchased by Microsoft and developed for Microsoft Windows, and Apple Computers Mac OS and Mac OS X operating systems. ...
UltraEdit is a text editor created by IDM Computer Solutions. ...
Notepad++ is a free source code editor which supports several programming languages running under the Microsoft Windows environment. ...
A picture of the Macromedia Studio 8 box. ...
WordPerfect is a word processing program; at the height of its popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was the de facto standard word processor, but has since been eclipsed in sales by Microsoft Word. ...
Classic examples This is a list of examples from back in the days of Windows 95, and Windows 3.x Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. ...
The Windows 3. ...
Program Manager in Windows 3. ...
A file manager is a computer program that provides a user interface to work with file systems. ...
See also In the area of graphical user interfaces, a tabbed document interface (TDI) is one that allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window, using tabs to navigate between them. ...
Inkscape uses an SDI In graphical user interfaces, a single document interface or SDI is a method of organizing graphical user interface applications into individual windows that the operating systems window manager handles separately. ...
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