565556 - Change Save to Download

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[John Wayne Hill (UX Intern)]

(Note: this is filed as part of the “Paper Cut” bugs — we assume that there may be multiple existing bugs on this. Please make them block this bug, and we will de-dupe if they are indeed exactly the same. Thanks!)

To reproduce:
1. Start up Firefox
2. open up a new page
3. go to "File->Save Page As ....

Recommendation:
We (the UX team) recommend changing all instances of "Save" to "Download". Such as "Save image as" -> "Download image as". The term "download" is now very much part of the internet language.

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

What's wrong with Save? I think it's still more commonly understood, despite "Download"'s increase in popularity...

Comment 2

[Josh Tumath]

But what if the file is being viewed on the user's computer. If the file is being used with the "file://" protocol, "save" would be a better word to use.

Comment 3

[Bob Triffles]

I think this idea should be implemented with great care or rejected.  The words "save" and "download" have different meanings (roughly summarized below):

save = write to a file
download = transfer from a remote host to your PC

For example, when you are at a website, you have already downloaded it to your cache.  When you want to commit it to a specific file, then you save it (Save Page As).
Everything that is saved must have been downloaded, but you can download without saving (e.g. for an in-browser preview).

Given that virtually every single Windows application (and probably most non-Windows applications) use the word "Save" for commiting data to a file, I think it is best to use the word "save" in most instances.

Comment 4

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to comment #3)
> save = write to a file
> download = transfer from a remote host to your PC
> 
> For example, when you are at a website, you have already downloaded it to your
> cache.

Related to this, pages can have local dynamic changes which actually aren't on the server. There's no way you could download these.

Comment 5

[Roman]

(In reply to comment #3)
> I think this idea should be implemented with great care or rejected.

+1 on this; it would be rather undesirable to introduce incorrect uses of the term, confusing those who know its exact meaning.

Observe that Adobe Reader plugin uses the term "Save" - even if the document hasn't yet been fully retrieved. Though it's quite verbose - "Save a Copy" or even an entire sentence; I haven't found any uses of just "Save".

Comment 6

[Florian Bender]

I think this should be marked as WONTFIX, then.

Comment 7

[Peter Retzer (:pretzer)]

I'll be so bold...