2011r2(803): Missing close button for graph/report window
The window displayed by Tools > Graphs and Reports is missing a button to close the dialog.
From the Change log:
801-802 2011-10-18
Removed redundant 'done' button on graph/report window
Why is this button redundant? Every single dialog needs a button to close it when you are done with it. No, relying on the window banner "x" to close a dialog is not good UI design. If you feel "Done" is not applicable, why not rename it to "Close"? Or just leave it as "Done", like so many other Moneydance windows (Edit Accounts, Edit Categories, Reminders, etc.)
Support Staff 2 Posted by Ben Spencer on 26 Oct, 2011 02:48 PM
I asked the developers about this and their response was that in well done modern apps there is a trend to move away from having a Done or Close button where the standard window close button "X" is present. The intention of the developers is to remove the Done button from the other windows in Moneydance where it is also redundant.
The justification in part is that we don't need an additional min and max button at the bottom of the window therefore we don't need an additional close/done button.
I am sorry if this does not meet your needs.
Ben Spencer
Moneydance Support
3 Posted by ljb on 26 Oct, 2011 09:12 PM
There are many Mozilla bug reports on missing Close or Done buttons. I'm not the only user who complains when developers remove or omit them. One of the Mozilla developers replied as follows:
Note his wording: Windows/Linux = required, Mac = recommended against. He provides these reference links to the guidelines:
(Perhaps your developers consider Moneydance a Mac product which also runs on Windows and Linux? Oh well. As long as the Escape key works to close the dialog, it doesn't matter that much to me. But I would like to leave this thread open for a short while to see if there are other opinions.)
4 Posted by -Kevin N. on 26 Oct, 2011 09:42 PM
Before the advent of the sidebar, where reports and graphs are now readily available, I would click Tools > Graphs and Reports.
I can remember on more than one occasion of setting certain report or graph perameters, clicking 'Done' expecting the report to now be available only to have the window close. It didn't take too many times to figure it out but it did create at least a temporary nuisance.
The sidebar more or less circumvents this entire issue but for those that choose the Tools > Graphs & Reprts route, I would say that removing the 'Done' button is probably the right thing to do. Everybody, Linux, Mac or PC user understands what the red 'X' does.
My 2 cents.
-Kevin N.
5 Posted by ljb on 27 Oct, 2011 12:51 AM
You make a good case for why "Done" should instead be "Close". But the fact that there is a better way to view reports than using Tools > Graphs & Reports doesn't change the underlying issue. All dialogs should have a button to close them, in my opinion, and currently all of them do (I think) except the one that was just "fixed"
Support Staff 6 Posted by Ben Spencer on 27 Oct, 2011 12:33 PM
I appreciate the feedback and have passed it on to the developers.
Moneydance is a cross platform application which has the same user interface regardless of the operating system it is running on. It is certainly not a mac app that also runs on windows and linux. I think it is unlikely that we are going to make a special windows version and a special mac version.
Sincerely
Ben Spencer
Moneydance Support