>>>It got me thinking "why do we need a save button at all?" When I fill out a physical form I don't have to save it. It is saved by virtue of having filled it out. So why do we require users to 'SAVE'?
On old systems, with no button group at all, it saved after the user went past the last field. Now since there were no mice, and no shortcuts, the user couldn't skip fields, so it validated sequentially, and implicitly saved at the end. As for viewing/editing existing records, there were different approaches - usually with function keys, or even different forms for those purposes. It worked fine, but now we have these buttons as a GUI standard, so... when was the last time you saw _any_ entry form without them? Making a form without them would surely make it look familiar to an whole-wall-cupboard mainframe operator, but would also confuse the hell out of a today's user.
We may also write "OK" instead of "Save", though the "OK/Cancel/Apply" type of button group is applicable to settings dialogs only - not for a situation of a nose-in-keyboard data entry. I mean, having a default button which automatically closes a form is not appropriate here.
>Now, some data entry forms are very complex and have many relationships between the data elements. Why not a sort of validation status that indicates how far towards completion the user is?
Needs a bit more coding, but why not. Sounds like a good idea to me.
>This morning my wife asked me to fill out some forms but I didn't have time to finish them. She complained she couldn't send them out until they were complete. I said, so, I'll finish it when I get home. Now, in systems we build, the user usually has to complete the form/screen and save all or none. Otherwise, we complain, the database will be in a bad state. Should the user care? He should be able to easily say "I'll finish that tomorrow when I have time" We don't often build systems that meet these needs.
Now this is something we don't do, but could do. Allowing to save only half-validated record would have to render it unfinished or assign it any other status, so it won't be taken seriously in reporting etc, but could be easily retrieved for finishing (say, a message "you have incomplete records, would you like to finish them now?" when a form launches). Another good idea, which would require even more work - the form part is easy, but imagine all the SQL and other regions of the app which should be made aware of such records.
