43795 - Wizards buttons should be [Back] [Next/Finish] [Cancel]

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 75143

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, defect, P3)

Description

[Henrik Gemal]

When you use the wizardOverlay.xul you can use the following id "wizardButtons" 
to get the
[Cancel]       [< Back] [Next >]  [Finish]
buttons

A better and simpler UI would be:

                [< Back] [Next >] [Cancel]
with "Back" being disabled on the first screen and instead of "Next" in the last 
screen the button should say Finish. So you're down to 3 buttons instead of 5.

Comment 1

[John Morrison]

not a widget problem

Comment 2

[Ben Goodger (use ben at mozilla dot org for email)]

This same bug was INVALIDated a long time ago for complex reasons, 
but I'm beginning to change my mind. Nonetheless, not an immediate 
priority. 

Comment 3

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

I can't find the bug Ben mentioned, and I believe he may actually be referring to 
an e-mail message I sent him a long time ago making this same suggestion. 
However, I've changed my mind ...

There are two kinds of wizards. The first kind is where leaving everything at the 
default settings produces some sort of usable output. Examples include the 
document creation wizards in MS Office and other productivity apps. In this kind 
of wizard, having the `Finish' button separate from the `Next' button is useful, 
because it allows you to skip past a whole lot of questions which aren't useful.

The second kind is where the user must answer (almost) every question in order 
for the program to do anything useful. The Account Wizard is arguably an example 
of this. In this kind, a `Finish' button is less useful; however, I can think of 
at least two examples where you'd want to use it.

1.  You get to the last page (`Congratulations!'), and discover that you
    mis-typed your e-mail address. (Duh.) You click `Back' several times to get
    to the page where your e-mail address was asked for, and correct it. If there
    isn't a separate `Finish' button, you then have to click `Next' several times
    in order to get to the last page and complete the wizard. And that's
    annoying.

2.  You are in a cybercafe, and all you want to do is check your mail. The
    existence of <http://mailstart.com/> shows that all that is needed for this
    is your e-mail address and password. So I should be able to enter these on
    the first page of the wizard, and then click `Finish'; if this is made easy
    enough to do, we can help stem the bandwidth and usability tragedy commonly
    known as Webmail.

So I think there should be a `Finish' button, but the wizard should be a lot 
smarter about when it is enabled and when it is disabled.

Ben, there's a lot of other UI problems with the Account Wizard. I notice that 
the Wizard is riddled with green lines at the moment; if that means it is going 
to be completely rewritten, then e-mail me (or comment in this bug) and I'll send 
you a spec for a redesign.

Comment 4

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Here's another example of how it's useful to have both, this time from the 
profile wizard in Mozilla 4.x:
|
| Click Next to continue entering information.
|
| Click Finish if you want to start Communicator, and continue entering your
| mail and newsgroup information later.
|
|                                 [ < Back ][ > Next ] [ Finish ] [ Cancel ]

Comment 5

[Marcia Knous [:marcia]]

Netscape nav triage team: per Alec Flett's pre-triage recommendation, this 
bug is nsbeta1-.

Comment 6

[Paul Chen]

Marking nsbeta1- bugs as future to get off the radar

Comment 7

[Blake Ross]

-> hewitt, who's taking over hyatt's new wizard binding

Comment 8

[Joe Hewitt (gone)]

yes, I'm on this now.  I've gotten it so that mac and windows wizards look
platform-specific in many of the ways that mpt detailed in his very-helpful-list
in bug 75143

Comment 9

[Joe Hewitt (gone)]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 75143 ***

Comment 10

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

mass verification of duplicate bugs: to find all bugspam pertaining to this, set
your search string to "DuplicateBugsBelongInZahadum".

if you think this particular bug is *not* a duplicate, please provide a
compelling reason, as well as check a recent *trunk* build (on the appropriate
platform[s]), before reopening.