Re: Menu guidelines updated

["James M. Cape" <jcape ignore-your tv>]

On 03 Aug 2001 06:43:01 -0500, James M. Cape wrote:
> On 03 Aug 2001 03:52:17 -0700, Seth Nickell wrote:
> > > "Reload from Disk" is also very descriptive, but it's usually better to
> > > avoid mentioning physical parts of the system like "disks"-- the user
> > > may have no idea their document is actually being stored on a disk, it
> > > may just be somewhere "in the computer" or "on the network" as far as
> > > they're concerned.  And in the case of Linux-based PDAs, for example,
> > > your documents aren't really being stored on a disk in the conventional
> > > sense anyway  :o)
> > 
> > "Reload from disk" in my mind fails to capture that your current changes
> > will be lost in favour of what was last saved. That the data is on disk
> > or otherwise is somewhat irrelevant.
> > 
> > -Seth
> 
> "Reload From Saved"?
> 
> I smell another opportunity for a user test :-)

I know, I know, not Emily Post to reply to one's own message, but I just
had an idea. Why call it revert or reload, or anything similar at all. I
just thought about what an average MS Word user would do if I handed
them a sheet that said

1. "Open the document, type <lots of text here>"
2. Now, make the document the same as when you opened it

I instantly imagined what most users would do:
Go to "Edit"/"Undo", repeating this until it was the same as when they
opened it. So why not put it in Edit? "Undo until last saved" or
something?

Just a thought :-)

    Jim Cape
    http://www.ignore-your.tv

    If the United States Government spent as much on education
    as it did on the military, every student could fail in a
    solid gold desk.