A really good article on software usability

[Tim]

Tim:
>>>> I was helping someone come to terms with computing a while back, and
>>>> every time they closed a document, they'd be asked about saving it, and
>>>> they'd always say yes, no matter what.

Anne Wilson:
>>> But at least it's the safe option.

Tim: 
>> But it wasn't.  They were losing data and keeping broken copies.  They
>> were saving unintentional changes to documents, irretrievably losing the
>> originals.  Likewise, they were saving what were meant to be temporary
>> changes to documents (bit they didn't want printed, but still wanted in
>> the file).

Anne Wilson: 
> Sorry, but there's no way on earth you can protect data from people who refuse 
> to use the brain.

I know that, but I was arguing the point that it's not a "safe" option.


>>> So you don't consider print settings for the document to be a real
>>> change? 

>> I don't.  If I'd changed printer settings, perhaps.  But just printing
>> the document, no.  The "document" hasn't changed.  Data about it may
>> have, if you keep track of how many times it's printed.  But in the
>> usual sense of whether some document has changed, refers to the actual
>> content.

> That I had to test, as I had never seen it happen.  I opened a document in 
> OOWriter, one that I knew had been previously printed.  I accepted the 
> printer settings and printed it.  I then closed it.  No dialogue - it just 
> closed.

With prior versions a default option was set that printing did that,
with later versions it doesn't (thankfully).  Other word processors run
differently.