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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Getting rid of yes/no (was: Re: Ideas for kde3 part II)
From:       Rob Kaper <cap () capsi ! com>
Date:       2001-10-31 8:54:16
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On Tue, Oct 30, 2001 at 12:25:09PM -0800, Waldo Bastian wrote:
> I would go for:
> 
> "There are unsafed changes in Document1. Do you want to save or discard the 
> changes to Document1?"
> 
> [Save] [Discard] [Cancel]
> 
> Which is a very suitable candidate for a warningYesNoCancel box.

Ah, thanks! You just made me realize _why_ I dislike those boxes. It's not
even the yes/no part, it's mostly the cancel part.

Our messagebox only mentions whether to save a document or not. It's not
very obvious to a novice user what the Cancel action will do (or won't do).
It takes experience to find out that Cancel doesn't refer to saving the
document but rather to the action leading up to the dialog box, in this case
closing the window.

The dialog should be about closing the window (or exiting the application,
whichever is applicable).

"There are unsafed changes in Document1. Closing this window will discard
these changes unless you save them first."

[Save] [Discard] [Cancel]

This makes the purpose of the Cancel button more obvious. The messagebox is
now mainly related to the action creating it, while still offering some
options (Save/Discard) related to the consequence of the action.

Rob
-- 
Rob Kaper     | "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
cap@capsi.com | temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
www.capsi.com | - Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
 
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