When annotating, there is an icon with a cross at the bottom of the icon toolbar. I expect it to cancel without saving, and the “Done” function in the top tool/menu bar to save.
Instead, the cross icon also saves everything. This is a bit confusing, could it not cancel out?
That icon is the New Document Assistant i[/i]. We have no other data of people expecting this to cancel any data entry.
Anyone else have an opinion on this?
I’m talking about the round circle with the cross in it, second from bottom in the toolbar on the left during editing. Tapping it ends editing and saves everything.
This icon?
It closes the toolbar and stops editing just as “Done” in the menu. Same action. In iOS it is nearly universal that document edits are saved immediately when they occur. I don’t see why closing the toolbar would be interpreted as “stop, don’t save”. There are undo/redo buttons there, if you wish to revert/redo an edit.
That’s the one!
I would respectfully disagree with the “nearly universal” bit. iOS apps either have an implicit or explicit editing.
Implicit means editing and saving is automatic (Apple Notes).
Explicit means editing must be invoked by some means and completed or cancelled. Examples:
Photos - Editing must be invoked explicitly, and then has options “Done” or “Cancel”
Calendar - Tap “Edit” to invoke editing mode, again “Done” and “Cancel”
In DTTG you must switch on edit mode and it has “Done” and a symbol that means cancel in most of the computing world but also means ‘Done’ in this case.
I think the better comparison is to other PDF annotation apps and graphical apps (OmniGraffle, e.g.) But whatever, I don’t think the behavior is unexpected. You do. Fine.
Just curious – if you were working with a PDF in DTTG and made 2, 4, a dozen or more notes, highlights, etc., and then pressed the button you suggest should be “cancel/don’t save” – would you expect all those changes to immediately disappear? It seems to me that would be a very shocking result for most users – all the work I did disappearing because I pressed this little button over here that has no label or indication of its function.
I don’t think the button itself is that clear. To me it looks like it should close the toolbar. And because of it’s obscurity I agree with you it shouldn’t just dump everything without warning. A confirmation dialog, or, better still, a ‘Cancel’ opposite the ‘Done’ would be more appropriate, or even just remove the cross icon. I just think it doesn’t fit well into the user interface.
I use PDFpen, which uses an explicit edit mode
Adobe apps (Photoshop, Lightroom etc.) vary: either a backarrow with a save/discard popup, or a tick and a cross icon to either save or discard
Word/Excel/Powerpoint do automatic edit
So it varies…