Re: [Usability] gedit's Save A Copy

[Murray Cumming <murrayc murrayc com>]

On Sat, 2005-02-19 at 22:58 +0100, Paolo Maggi wrote:
> On Sat, 2005-02-19 at 22:38 +0100, Murray Cumming wrote:
> > On Sat, 2005-02-19 at 22:20 +0100, Paolo Borelli wrote:
> > > Murray Cumming wrote:
> > > 
> > > >gedit 2.9 has a new feature - a "Save Copy" menu item, under "Save As".
> > > >It saves a copy of the document (I guess the current state, but maybe
> > > >the saved state), but afterwards you will be editing the original
> > > >instead of the new location.
> > > >
> > > >I think it's meant as a way to upload files to external servers without
> > > >using nautilus.
> > > >
> > > >This seems both dangerously confusing and not consistent with other
> > > >applications. It's a plugin, so I personally wish it was turned it off
> > > >by default, even after the UI freeze.
> > > >
> > > >  
> > > >
> > > The plugin is meant to to "save a copy" (who would have guessed :) ), of 
> > > the current document to a local or remote location. I can understand how 
> > > can you say that this can be confusing (just for the fact that it adds 
> > > a  menu item), but I don't see how it can be dangerous:
> > 
> > It's too similar to Save As. People might think that Save Copy does what
> > Save As does, and then mistakenly delete the original, thinking that
> > their changes are in the copy.
> > 
> > It's also not clear whether it saves a copy of the saved state (as a
> > Nautilus copy would) or the current unsaved state)
> > 
> > Export would be clearer, but sounds like data conversion to me.
> > 
> 
> Note that the "Save a Copy..." function is described by the  GNOME HIG
> (see table 4.2 of
> http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/menus-standard.html#the-file-menu)
> as one of the standard items of the File menu.

OK, so it's been thought about. Sorry. I do still think it'll lead to
confusion though. Then again, people get confused already.

And the menu title should be corrected after the string freeze is over.

-- 
Murray Cumming
murrayc murrayc com
www.murrayc.com
www.openismus.com