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List:       koffice
Subject:    Re: Problem: Close & Exit - Solution?
From:       Michael Reiher <michael.reiher () gmx ! de>
Date:       1999-09-12 1:39:10
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Peter Penz wrote:
> 
> David uncovered a problem, which I tried to hide until we decided
> something about the Exit ;-)
> 
> Let me explain that: the most mails I got about this problem agreed,
> that there is no really need for Exit. Let's assume (!) we don't have an
> exit anymore.
> 
> Now the situation is as follows: in every application we have a
> file-menu, which always has a Close in it. But here's the problem you
> covered: do you Close a File or the window?!?!?
> 
> I didn't want to ask this before, because I thought everybody would
> flame me, but: WHY DO WE NEED TO CLOSE A WINDOW (!) WITH AN ENTRY IN THE
> FILE (!!!!)-MENU?
> 
> Every window has a close-button. If you give a user two possibilities to
> do one action, he'll always use the easier, faster and more logical one:
> he closes the window with the close-button!
> 
> If you're honest: how often did you use the Exit/Close from current
> applications in daily live? I use Netscape for 3 years and never clicked
> on Exit or Close...
> 
> So I'll risc it and make following suggestion:
> - no Exit in the file-menu.
> - only a Close in the file-menu, if this Close
>   closes the document/file, like David explained
>   in KWord.
> 
> I think that would be logical:
> FILE
> - New:  creates blank document
> - Open: opens document
> - Save: saves document
> - Close (!!!): Closes DOCUMENT (not window).
> 
> What do you think about that?
Assume that there is no window manager running(for whatever reason), how
do you close the window? This may not happen very often but it, may
happen.
Every function of a program should be, in whatever way, accessible via
menus.

I think the best would be that always one document and one window are
connected together. So we should forbid the no document state of a
window. Then you only have Close in the menu which closes the document
AND the window.
If you open an existing document the case is clear: it is of course
loaded. If you start say KWord from the panel it would just opens an
empty document. "Open" would then open a new window containing the new
doc. It won't be possible anymore to close one doc and after that open
another in the same window. The user would mainly have to use the file
manager to open docs.
This is very document centric and might confuse users, but it's IMO very
elegant.

Greets

Michael

-- 
Michael Reiher  
     Student at Dresden University of Technology
          Department of Computer Science
               email: michael.reiher@gmx.de

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