RE: Suppressing carriage return in a form action??

At 10:16 AM 7/4/01 +0200, Klaas De Waele wrote:
>I think this is all a bit bending to the wrong habits of users.  Internet
>users should know that by pressing enter they submit a form, and by pressing
>tab they can cycle through the fields, while when pressing backspace it
>could very well be they will be taken to a previously visited page.
>
>I don't think it's considered our job to break functions.  

Back in the dark ages when I got my degree in comp. sci., we were urged to validate data as users entered it rather than accept bad data and get back to them hours or days later to let them know they screwed up.  

My theory is that you young people, faced with browsers that don't submit data except all at once, have decided to make virtue of necessity.  So, you've determined that user error is no problem of yours.  

Except of course, it is a problem and it's YOUR problem because when a user submits a wrong zip code and the check gets lost in the mail, YOU are the one who does not get paid.

In this case, I was getting two or three form submissions for every one that had been sent purposefully.  On the second or third the user would write, "oops, sorry for the previous failed attempts..."  This was a waste of user time and my time.  So, I have handled it in my own unique way.  

I have not changed the All-Hallowed UI of the Internet as you Noble Lords of the Internet define it.  I accept the Enter key AND I allow users to press the Submit button.  I do however make clear to my users that pressing Enter submits the form.

And, when the user does press Enter (or Submit), I just post a confirmation form that the user can peruse to ensure the data is correct.  This delays experienced users just a little bit.  However, none of my users ARE experienced users because they are all joining for the first and only time.  

Since I made this change, I have gotten NO premature form submissions and NO complaints from experienced Internet users who want to use the form; the only negative feedback was from you (see below).  So from my point of view, my solution was successful.

In the same message, Kayjey also threw in:

>There's some things that I find annoying on sites:
>
>in order of "annoyingness" ...

I know I asked for any and all comments.  So I asked for this.  Next time, I guess I should ask for any and all constructive comments.

I'm going to assume that this subsequent thread of Web site bashing relates to your extreme distaste for the "annoyingness" of my Web site.  Kayjey and Lois and in fact, any and all of you who care to place my Web site in your list of annoying Web sites are welcome to.  I would feel honored by the coverage.  Let me know when/where you post your critiques so I can let my friends and clients read all about that's wrong with my site.  (I will not be willing to sacrifice trees so I can read books that bash my work.  Hope you understand.)

Oh, and Klaas -- you forgot to mention that I have a right-hand nav menu AND that I use tables instead of frames -- I believe those are two other features you don't appreciate.  

If you'd like, let me know what other features you dislike most in Web sites, and I will try to implement them for you on my site .-)

--Emily

>- popups when you enter/leave a page
>- right-mouse button disabled (don't worry, I'll get to the code another
>way)
>- sound (well... noise)
>- bad navigation
>- being forced to grab the mouse after typing something (forms not
>submitting when I press enter, etc...)
>-...
>
>Maybe I'll once write a book about annoying websites.
>Please inform me if you have an annoying site.
>
>
>- Kayjey -
>
>On Wed, 13 Jun 2001 10:05:28 -0700, I asked:
>
>>I have a form (http://armadillosoft.com/epgy/join.php3) and my users are
>accidentally submitting it prematurely by pressing <ENTER> to go to the next
>field when they should be pressing tab.   
>... 
>So, now I've got a slew of different forms, all of which (hopefully) work
>similarly.  They are at:
>http://armadillosoft.com/epgy/epgyforms.php?theform=j.php
>http://armadillosoft.com/epgy/epgyforms.php
>http://armadillosoft.com/epgy/epgyforms.php?theform=gt.php
>
>All comments are welcome.  And thanks again for your suggestions.
>
>--Emily 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~                            Emily Berk                                 ~
On the web at www.armadillosoft.com *** Armadillo Associates, Inc.      ~ 
~             Project management, developer relations and               ~
extremely-technical technical documentation that developers find useful.~
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