Hiya Bob ----

The concept of "saving" is deeply ingrained into the user psyche; virtually all Windows software has a "Save" or "OK" button to commit changes. I would agree, though, that a WAIT WIND every time you save would be supremely annoying after a while.

I was reading other posts on this thread and saw references to Alan Cooper and the concept of automatically saving. I'm not sure I buy into all of his arguments against a "save".

And I also don't buy analogies with paper forms in that by writing on them you are committing changes with no further actions.

In systems with dedicated "new" and/or "edit" controls to add/change records (aka Edit-on-Request (EOR)) there is nothing wrong with a Save or Undo to book-end the action. In fact, I would think any other metaphore would be counter-intuitive.

OTOH, if you do not require a user to do anything to start editing fields (aka Edit-on-Demand (EOD)), then you could use logic to determine when to save changes. I don't think that's optimal for applications with sensitive or exacting requirements for data entry.

In applications where I have tried to be "bleeding-edge" and not had dedicated save functions, inevitably "dirty" data gets into the tables. Typos, accidental saves, et al. In a perfect world with perfect users....maybe.