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General rules
Let the user work from the top left down to the bottom right.
Capitalize all elements ranging from menu headings to the labels of radio buttons.
Ensure pixel-precise alignment of all elements.
Disable (graphical representation: gray-out) all controls that currently meaningless.
Menus entries, buttons etc. that open a dialog box are titled with an ellipsis at the end.
Let the user first select the object and then choose the action.
Try to group the elements visually by white space; try to avoid additional lines and boxes.
Similar things on similar dialogs should look similar.
Honor the standard titles and their location (File, Save, Edit, Copy, Help, OK [Windows: left, Mac: right], Cancel etc.).
Menus
Menu titles should be nouns.
Menu entries should mostly be verbs or sentence fragments in the imperative mood.
The mouse click on a menu title does not trigger any action other than opening the menu.
Use dividers to group the entries of a menu.
Use check marks in front of menu items to display an on/off state.
Radio buttons vs. Check boxes
Radio buttons allow to choose between options that are mutually exclusive. These options are visually combined to form a group.
Check boxes switch something on or off. If you need two equivalent options (such as male/female) use two radio buttons instead.