"Save to Disk" confuses some users

[Sean Kennedy]

I was recently assisting my mom to save an email attachment from a web email client. She said she would save it but then she couldn't find it after she had looked at it. It turns out she was always choosing to view the document with the default viewer. Of course when she closed it, she couldn't find where the file was saved.

I asked her (it was over the phone) if she saw the "Save to Disk" option. She said "yes", but that she didn't want to save it to a disk, meaning a floppy disk.

This is the first time I have ever heard someone associate "Save to Disk" with the need to provide a removable disk. Perhaps it isn't that common, and the wording doesn't need to be changed (I think it is common wording), but this misunderstanding is at least interesting and worth recording.

Still, perhaps "save" would be less confusing (and also more accurate on a computer that only uses flash storage).

[Ryanvm (ryanvm)]

Pretty easy to change if the drivers see fit:
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/browser/locales/en-
US/chrome/browser/preferences/preferences.properties#74
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/mail/locales/en-
US/chrome/messenger/preferences/preferences.properties#44

[Ryanvm (ryanvm)]

Gah, broken links:
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/browser/locales/en-
US/chrome/browser/preferences/preferences.properties#74
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/mail/locales/en-
US/chrome/messenger/preferences/preferences.properties#44

[Ryanvm (ryanvm)]

K, I quit. Sorry for the bugspam.

[Tonglebeak (tonglebeak)]

Created attachment 190359
change "Save to disk" to "Save"

I agree with this. If firefox is now being aimed towards replacing IE, this
should be good. Changing "Save to disk" to "Save" will most certainly prevent
confusion, as IE uses "Save."

[Mike Connor (mconnor)]

Comment on attachment 190359
change "Save to disk" to "Save"

let's not monkey with this for now, I want to change the design of this dialog
in the 2.0 cycle, but changing stuff like this is unnecessary and not
necessarily clearer

[Worcester12345 (worcester12345)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> (From update of attachment 190359 [edit])
> let's not monkey with this for now, I want to change the design of this dialog
> in the 2.0 cycle, but changing stuff like this is unnecessary and not
> necessarily clearer
>

For the cost of deleting two words, it would be worth it to get into the 1.1/1.5
release. Then deal with the other fix in 2.0.

[Dan Fischbach (blindwolf8)]

Looks like to didn't happen. Oh well. ;-) Anything on the Wiki concerning this, or any plans for 2.0?

[Mike Connor (mconnor)]

Not a blocker, but tagged with uiwanted so it gets reviewed.

[Supernova00 (supernova00)]

Donno exactly which one is wanted so I submitted a few patches. Just remember it has to go good with the question in the dialog. "What should &brandShortName; do with this file?"

Save - No
Save to Disk - grandma does not know what a disk is
Save to Hard Drive - Maybe
Save to your default download location - My pick

Attaching patchs for last two entries in my list.

[Supernova00 (supernova00)]

Created attachment 208554
Save to Hard Drive

[Supernova00 (supernova00)]

Created attachment 208555
Save to default location

[Dan Fischbach (blindwolf8)]

Since I'm the original reporter of this bug, how about a "Save to my computer" option?

[Worcester12345 (worcester12345)]

The original "Save File" was the best idea.

Since there is a patch and all, this should be a no-brainer to be block (be fixed before) 2.0.

[Mike Connor (mconnor)]

Comment on attachment 208554
Save to Hard Drive

You can save to many things, hard drive is just one of them.

[Mike Connor (mconnor)]

Comment on attachment 208555
Save to default location

really wordy, and might not be right either, depending on the pref setting.

[Supernova00 (supernova00)]

Any sugestions then or just leave well enough be? Are you still working on revamping the download manager, because I believe you mentioned something before in another bug which was about the same as this with renaming something about just waiting to see what you come up with later on.

[Supernova00 (supernova00)]

Mike please see comment 16, thought you was on the CC list aswell.

[Mike Connor (mconnor)]

This isn't a mustfix, but it might get fixed when we do the "clean up dialog text" pass.

[Bugzilla-ali (bugzilla-ali)]

Just noting I had this scenario actually occur today.

Phone call from my not so technically savvy mother, who understands the basic (don't run attachments, say yes if windows of firefox asks to upgrade) confused.

her: "I'm trying to upgrade Firefox, and it has an option thing here with 'open with' sort of faded out, and 'Save to Disk' which looks like it is selected, and 'always do this action' sort of faded out"

me: "Yes, because it's a program, you have to save it first before you run it"

her: "So what do I do?"

me: "It's already select as Save to Disk, so click OK"

her: "But I don't have disks... sigh... so I have to go and buy some disks now"

me: "No no, it doesn't mean floppy disks"

her: "No, doesn't it mean disks... like a CD"

me: "Oh, no. It means the disk inside the computer"

her: "What disk inside the computer"

me: "It just means save to the computer, to the desktop"

her: "sigh... well why doesn't it just say that?"

and from there I walked her through the rest of saving and running the update.

It seems quite clear to me that "Disk" is quite unclear to non-technical people.

They know floppy disks and CD disks and maybe even DVD disks, but their computer is the box on the ground, or the box on the table, it doesn't look anything like a disk.

"Save to the computer" or even (in the special cases on Windows or Mac where the location to save to is something special) "Save to My Desktop" would seem much more sensible and make it easier to understand.

[Worcester12345 (worcester12345)]

Tell them they need more memory (frequent with Firefox), and they will say "I didn't know I was out of disk space already. The "browser for the people" should cater to "the people".

[Beltzner (beltzner)]

"Save File" is what you want here. If there's going to be a re-working of the DM, it will happen in a separate bug.

(removing uiwanted)

[Bugzilla-willhirsch (bugzilla-willhirsch)]

Agreed with Mike. The functional part of the label is the "save"... you are keeping it rather than storing temporarily so "Save file" is semantically accurate as well as more (IMO) understandable. The alternative option still writes to disk anyway, just to a temporary folder.

[Sean Kennedy (sean-worker)]

I was recently assisting my mom to save an email attachment from a web email client. She said she would save it but then she couldn't find it after she had looked at it. It turns out she was always choosing to view the document with the default viewer. Of course when she closed it, she couldn't find where the file was saved.

I asked her (it was over the phone) if she saw the "Save to Disk" option. She said "yes", but that she didn't want to save it to a disk, meaning a floppy disk.

This is the first time I have ever heard someone associate "Save to Disk" with the need to provide a removable disk. Perhaps it isn't that common, and the wording doesn't need to be changed (I think it is common wording), but this misunderstanding is at least interesting and worth recording.

Still, perhaps "save" would be less confusing (and also more accurate on a computer that only uses flash storage).

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Please mention which Web browser is being used.

[Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas)]

Perhaps "Save into computer" or "Save permanently" or something would be clearer ?

[Quark Green (quark-green-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for taking the time to file this bug report. Unfortunately we can't take this bug any further at the moment because your description didn't include enough information. We'd be grateful if you would provide a more complete description of the problem.
1. Is the "Save to Disk" dialog being generated by an Ubuntu package/program or by the web email client? If it is an Ubuntu package/program then:
2. Please include the output of the command "uname -a" in your next response. It should be one, long line of text which includes the exact kernel version you're running, as well as the CPU architecture.
3. The name and version of the Ubuntu package/program which is generating this dialog.
4. Any other information you think may be helpful.

[Sean Kennedy (sean-worker)]

Sorry for the missing information:

1. This is the Firefox download dialog.
2. I do not have access to this machine ... it has LTS on it and was
up-to-date, last I saw though. (I don't know why "uname -a" is required,
this is a usability/hci issue.)
3. This will be Firefox 1.5, the dialog is the same in 2.0 though. Of
course, I don't think that Firefox is the only program that uses "Save to
disk ...".
4. This is a usability and human-computer interaction issue.

Sean

On 30/05/07, Quark Green <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Thank you for taking the time to file this bug report. Unfortunately we
> can't take this bug any further at the moment because your description
> didn't include enough information. We'd be grateful if you would provide a
> more complete description of the problem.
> 1. Is the "Save to Disk" dialog being generated by an Ubuntu
> package/program or by the web email client? If it is an Ubuntu
> package/program then:
> 2. Please include the output of the command "uname -a" in your next
> response. It should be one, long line of text which includes the exact
> kernel version you're running, as well as the CPU architecture.
> 3. The name and version of the Ubuntu package/program which is generating
> this dialog.
> 4. Any other information you think may be helpful.
>
> ** Changed in: Ubuntu
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Quark Green
>
> --
> "Save to Disk" confuses some users
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/117260
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

upstream bug is confirmed, so "in progress" for us. Just remember to regularly ensure that upstream deals with the bug.

[Quark Green (quark-green-deactivatedaccount)]

This bug was recently reported in the Ubuntu Launchpad bug #117260. My opinion is to change it to "Save file" which is more general and understandable. Is this going to changed in Firefox anytime soon?

[Quark Green (quark-green-deactivatedaccount)]

Dear Kurt, Would it be possible for you to make a patch for "Save file"? Then maybe we could get someone to apply the patch?

[Quark Green (quark-green-deactivatedaccount)]

Changing status from 'In Progress' to 'Confirmed' because no one appears to be working on it upstream as yet.

[Hilario J. Montoliu (hjmf) (hmontoliu)]

Thank you Quark Green for your interest, bu please read first the triage policy [1] for mozilla related reports. More info at [2].

H. Montoliu

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Bugs/States
[2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/

[Andrewm715+bugzilla (andrewm715+bugzilla)]

Is this going to make it for Firefox 3? To me, it seems like a good change to make things clearer.

[Supernova00 (supernova00)]

Created attachment 280389
Changes "Save to disk" to "Save File"

[Reed Loden (reed)]

Comment on attachment 280389
Changes "Save to disk" to "Save File"

>-<!ENTITY save.label "Save to Disk">
>+<!ENTITY saveFile.label "Save File">

You can't just rev the entity name without changing the file that actually uses the entity. In this case, the file is toolkit/mozapps/downloads/content/unknownContentType.xul, so you'll need to change save.label to saveFile.label in that file, too.

[Supernova00 (supernova00)]

Created attachment 280396
Duh!

Sorry about that, this one should do.

[Supernova00 (supernova00)]

Created attachment 280397
Last time

Damn sometime so simple and yet I kept screwing it up ;) Last time, I promise unless the reviewer and/or beltzner wants it called something else.

[Shawn Wilsher (sdwilsh)]

Comment on attachment 280397
Last time

mconnor is incredibly busy. Let's do the reviewer shuffle shall we?

[Beltzner (beltzner)]

Comment on attachment 280397
Last time

Yes, let's. Guess who's back in town!

ui-r+

[Shawn Wilsher (sdwilsh)]

Checking in toolkit/mozapps/downloads/content/unknownContentType.xul;
new revision: 1.22; previous revision: 1.21
Checking in toolkit/locales/en-US/chrome/mozapps/downloads/unknownContentType.dtd;
new revision: 1.7; previous revision: 1.6

[Saša Bodiroža (jazzva)]

Fixed upstream, marking firefox task as Fix released.

[Intraday Tips (sharetipsexpert01)]

files which are to be written or the files in the CDFS file system are generally attributed read-only. right click on the file and select properties. uncheck the read-only attribute and save or modify. to create, modify or save a file which is already written to a cd, u have to re-write the file on the disk (either using the windows cd writing wizard or any other softwares like nero). to create a file on a cd first make the file on the hard disk 'n then write it onto cd. if u have t make any change to a file on a cd(re-drafting for instance), u have to copy the file to the hard disk, make the change and then write it back to the disk.

http://www.sharetipsexpert.com/BlueDiamondSe.html
http://www.sharetipsexpert.com/Bluegold%20Mari.html
http://www.sharetipsexpert.com/BlueInform.html