Hiya Mark ---

I *have* read Coopers book :-) I consider a really good guide to what one should strive for....but not what is necessarily attainable today.

>>The concept of "saving" is deeply ingrained into the user psyche
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>I beg to differ. :) It's ingrained into _current_ users' psyches. It's most definitely not ingrained into those of new users. And there will be a heck of a lot more new users than current users over time.

Hmmm....I would dispute that. Office has "save". Even the modeless dialogs like the Control Panels have "OK" and "Apply" which are, essentially, saves.

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>>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.
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>I don't believe in an Edit command. When the user makes a change, I put the form into Edit mode automatically, and replace the navigation buttons with OK and Cancel. As I've said, I don't believe Cooper's views apply to record-oriented data entry. I do think they apply to documents, however.
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So......with an OK button, you have a "save". Different name, same result. Frankly, I do the same thing but I usually do EOR (Edit on Request) with an button. With critical data, I want the user to be aware that they are entering into the potential to change data.