{"id":6296,"date":"2014-07-23T00:01:35","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T07:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=6296"},"modified":"2014-07-19T10:54:08","modified_gmt":"2014-07-19T17:54:08","slug":"the-save-icon-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=6296","title":{"rendered":"The Save Icon (Again)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gmail-save\"<\/a> I’ve written about it before: The Save icon. That toolbar button that features an old 3½-inch floppy disk, something today’s kids have never used. Yet the icon persists as the universal “Save” button — even on smartphones.
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\nMy original idea was to replace the Save icon with something more current, such as the life presever, shown in Figure 1. Now I’m beginning to think even that’s a stupid idea.<\/p>\n

\"Figure

Figure 1. My idea for a Save icon.<\/p><\/div>\n

Here’s the point: Why even save at all?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in the old days, many computer programs wouldn’t let you start a new document until you named it. That explains why I had to routinely clean up all the KILLME<\/code> and DELETE<\/code> documents on my computer. I had to name the document before I started working on it.<\/p>\n

That idea needs to come back: You start a new document, and you’re prompted for a name. Then after that, the document is automatically saved.<\/p>\n

Let me repeat: The document is automatically saved<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Save command can go away.<\/p>\n

In fact, this automatic save operation is how Google Docs works. If you’ve used Google Docs, you’ve probably noticed the absence of a Save command. In fact, I was unnerved by its absense when I left an online document recently. But then, at the top of the screen, it says, “All changes saved on Google Drive.” The document is saved as I work on it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

How novel.<\/p>\n

Not only does the always-saved document solve the problem of losing something you didn’t save, it removes the necessity of a Save icon. Ta-da!<\/p>\n

The Save As command is still necessary, of course. You may need to save the document under a different name or in a different format. But Save As doesn’t need to be a toolbar button. And if so, well then, the developers are welcome to use some variation of my life preserver icon. It makes far more sense than that silly 3½-inch floppy disk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why save anything at all?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6296"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6352,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6296\/revisions\/6352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}