The basic idea is that dialogs should be simpler in Motif programs, ie. You shouldn't have to unmanage unwanted widgets just to have a dialog. Plus, the Template dialog is more voodoo than anything else. The SmartMessagBox widget manages whatever you tell it to in 4 different ways: as a label, as a control widget, as a separator, or as an action widget. You can have up to 1 label, up to 1 control, up to 1 separator, and as many action widgets as you'd like. This is all handled through constraint resources.