Re: [Usability] Save As or Export when going to lossey formats?

[Curtis Hovey <sinzui cox net>]

On Thu, 2004-06-24 at 22:08 -0400, Jody Goldberg wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 24, 2004 at 10:54:37PM -0300, Steven Garrity wrote:
> > Curtis Hovey wrote:
> > >I think this is a very good idea.  When using Gnumeric to save to a
> > >format like CSV, I get a warning about loss.  When a format is being
> > >transformed to a lossy format, I think the intent is to use the data for
> > >another application--the term 'Export' reinforces the user's intent.
> > >'Save As' should be reserved for formats that the application can manage
> > >the data as it sees fit.
> > 
> > 
> > I think I agree. The thing that has always bothered me about Save vs. 
> > Export is that when you go to choose an action, you are left wondering 
> > which formats are "Save" formats and which are "Export".
> > 
> > I'm not sure there's a good way around this.
> 
> Our experience has been that people do not like the distinction.
> Older Gnumerics had save-as and export, and recieved regular bug
> reports that the export formats were missing.

That's sad.  Nothing jumps to mind how to resolve this.  If all apps
used export consistently, this might be less of a problem.  

Dia still makes a distinction between 'Save As' and 'Export' and I think
it make a lot of sense there because Dia cannot edit the formats it
exports to.  This is a stricter rule, and one that users may understand.

Users understanding of lossy formats are limited to a domain; artists
know that the gimp layer file is better than png, number crunchers know
gnumeric is better than csv.  So the real issue how to convey to the
casual user how they want to manage their data.  The issue might be over
blown--in most cases, the only lossless format an app knows is it's
native format.

-- 
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Guilty of stealing everything I am.