[pmwiki-users] New user's problem: Edit -> Preview -> Edit removes changes

[christian.ridderstrom at gmail.com]

On Fri, 7 Apr 2006, Bronwyn Boltwood wrote:

> On 4/7/06, christian.ridderstrom at gmail.com
> <christian.ridderstrom at gmail.com> wrote:
> > What if the text of the edit link was changed when a page is being
> > previewed? The text could for instance be changed from 'edit' to 'edit
> > (discard changes)'. This text isn't really good, but I hope the idea comes
> > across...
> 
> How about "Start new edit" as part of the phrase?

It doesn't quite make sense to me. The bit about discarding your 
previously entered changes isn't there I think. Would changing "edit" to 
"re-edit" make sense? Or "restart edit"?

Another alternative might be to add a text/warning that is common for all 
the action links when editing. It could be written below the action links, 
saying something like:
	Preview mode: These actions may cause you to loose changes.

Actually... maybe it'd be a good idea to always show the current mode next 
to the action links? (The mode could be shown as blank for normal browsing 
mode and only show text for edit / preview / history etc).

Comments?

> I never noticed this behaviour, but I never thought of previewing then
> hitting the edit link again, because I knew I was still editing. 
> (That's the point of it being a preview, after all!)

It's not a problem for me either... I noticed this while showing a new 
user how to use the wiki. She made this mistake, perhaps because it wasn't 
obvious that she was already in previewing.

Another possibility is that people are to used to switching back and forth 
between an edit mode and a preview mode in other applications?

/Christian

-- 
Christian Ridderström, +46-8-768 39 44               http://www.md.kth.se/~chr