[Usability] HIG: File New/Open/Quit, etc.

[Murray Cumming <murrayc murrayc com>]

I'd like the HIG to contain some simple suggestions for document-based
applications that are not tabbed. I'd like to avoid general conceptual
stuff about document-centric UI models, however. I'd also like to stick
to UI rather than implementation for now.

This could deal with some inconsistencies and deal with the problem that
most of these document windows currently behave differently if opened
from the Applications menu or from the application's File menu.


Are there objections to the HIG saying this, in the appropriate
sections?:

0. An application is "document-based" if it loads and saves documents.

1. Document-based applications should have File/New, File/Open,
File/Save, and File/Save As menu items.
1.1 File/New and File/Open should open new application windows (if not
using tabs), if the current document is empty and unmodified.
1.2 File/Open should check if the chosen document is already open in the
application. If so, it should bring the window to the front. The
application may ask the user if he wishes to open a second window for
the document. Show suggested UI for that.
1.3 The same check and UI should happen when opening a file in any other
way, such as from the file manager.

2. Document-based applications should have a File/Quit menu item. This
should close only the current document window. It should not close all
document windows open by the application.
2.1 Should it be called File/Close instead? Do we want both the Close
and Quit keyboard shortcuts to activate this menu item, to avoid
annoying people with the change.
2.2. If there are unsaved changes in the document, the application
should ask the user if they wish to save the changes. Show a suggested
UI for that, because these are currently very inconsistent.

3. The application should _not_ list its open document windows in a
Documents or Windows menu.


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