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Re: forms, tab order, and "cancel" buttons

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: Dec 9, 2009 11:39AM

On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 10:56 AM, < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> How do people usually deal with this? A developer doesn't want to
> remove the "Cancel" button, because he doesn't want any data in
> the form to accidentally send on reload.

I've never heard of such a thing. Certainly data can be re-sent by
refreshing, but only AFTER the form has already been submitted. A
cancel button does nothing to prevent that. A cancel button on a web
form is a very rare thing and I don't understand what functionality it
would serve other than to potentially confuse or misdirect users.

My vote - ditch the cancel button altogether. Another possibility
might be to display "Cancel" entirely different from the Submit
button, perhaps as a link immediately below the Submit button. This
would alleviate much potential confusion.

Your designer is a Mac user. Mac's typically have Cancel buttons to
the left of the OK button. Windows takes the exact opposite approach.
So which one is right? When it comes to web forms, as margit
indicated, it is most common and usable to have the primary function
button on the left if you must have two buttons.

Jared Smith
WebAIM.org