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Turning off "Are you sure you want to quit?"

Hi Jordan,

Is there anyway to switch off the "are you sure you want to quit?" dialogue? As I have Todopaper running all the time in the system tray, it stops Vista from shutting-down before the dialogue is clicking-on.

Thanks,

David

Posted By David on May 02, 2008 07:21AM

Hi David,

What I can do is listen for a shutdown / log-off request, and close the app when this happens so long as the file is saved. Otherwise, it will need to prompt if you want to save your changes.

What do you think of this?

Jordan

Posted By Jordan Sherer on May 02, 2008 12:10PM

Jordan,

That sounds perfect. If this is how it works, can you please ensure that it doesn't close the app during a sleep/hibernate request.

Thanks,

David

Posted By David on May 02, 2008 02:30PM

I'll keep that in mind when testing.

Best, Jordan

Posted By Jordan Sherer on May 02, 2008 02:46PM

To be honest, I'd like to see functionality (option maybe) that when I hit the X to close todopaper, it automatically saves the file, and closes it. I don't often just shut off my machine, but I do turn off todopaper once in a while. The popup is annoying. After all, Outlook doesn't ask you if you want to save your file before closing ;)

Posted By GTD Wannabe on May 02, 2008 04:26PM

@GTDWannabe: True, Outlook doesn't ask you. But it isn't using a "file based" system. Outlook saves things to a central database.

I believe that the editing and saving functionality of TodoPaper resembles Word (and other text editors) more closely than Outlook. If you have a modified document open in Word, it will ask you to save before quitting.

However, I do agree with you in part, but I would rather TodoPaper be loud and save my data when I want, than be quiet and save over my document on accident. Maybe an option would be best.

Posted By Jordan Sherer on May 03, 2008 01:29AM

Hi,

I think there is no need for this dialogue. There is a wonderful article about this at a list apart See here : http://www.alistapart.com/articles/neveruseawarning

So the thing is to save and on restart give an option to take that latest one or the previous autosave?

DaveG

Posted By David Garbutt on May 09, 2008 08:36AM

David, This was a great article. Very thoughtful. Thank you for sending the link my way.

After reading this article, it became much easier to imagine a solution to the alert on close. It is possible it could work like this:

A user has opened and made edits to a document
A user closes the file after modifications have been made (essentially deleting the changes)
However, the application writes the changes to an autosave file (like it would have been doing all along if autosave had been enabled)
The next time the user opens this document, TodoPaper will recognize that there is an autosave file and prompt if they would like to restore to the autosave.

I do see one problem with this however. The "Are you sure" prompt on exit IS removed, but another is added in its place when you re-open the document. This would be the easiest way to implement the undo type functionality, but isn't the most clean. I'll have to give to think a bit of another way we can accomplish the same thing, but by removing all of the alerts on open / close.

Do you have any further thoughts on this?

Best,
Jordan

Posted By Jordan Sherer on May 09, 2008 01:27PM

I think the question is What are you trying to fix with with dialog boxes? What are the use cases? Me, I want to save every change made to my todo list. There is never a case where I would make changes to the file, and then not want to save them. Therefore, I see no need for a confirmation on closing (just save the damn thing and exit) and also no need for a box on opening (just bring me back the last list I was working on).

On the other hand, if for some reason, the use case is that you make changes to a file, but then don't want to save them (often), then I can see the point for either of the confirmation boxes.

What I worry about here is that you're trying to code for a corner/boundary case that never, or rarely happens. (I find that I do that when I'm coding, often realizing later on that I've wasted precious time on a feature that will never be used, even by me.)

Hope this helps.

Posted By GTD Wannabe on May 09, 2008 03:49PM

@GTD
You hit it spot on. I really need to understand how the users will be using the app and what their expectations are when closing the file. Your insight is very beneficial.

Best,
Jordan

Posted By Jordan Sherer on May 10, 2008 01:52PM

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