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Thread: do i need to have default submit button for every form?

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From: Shrirang Sahasrabudhe
Date: Mon, Jan 01 2007 11:50PM
Subject: do i need to have default submit button for every form?
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Hi,
Do I need to have a default submit button for every form in the application?
Does AAA mandates this?
Will this be useful from general usability perspective?
It would be helpful to keyboard user, wouldnÂ’t it?
Pls provide your comments/suggestions.
Thanks
Shri


***********************************************************
If you try, you risk failure. If you don't, you ensure it....I try.
Shrirang Sahasrabudhe,
Pune, India.
Phone: 0091-020-4227558.

From: Christian Heilmann
Date: Tue, Jan 02 2007 2:40AM
Subject: Re: do i need to have default submit button for every form?
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On 1/2/07, Shrirang Sahasrabudhe < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Hi,
> Do I need to have a default submit button for every form in the application?

How else would you submit a form without JavaScript or hitting enter
and only send the first button?

If you are worried about submit buttons being "ugly", replace them
with JavaScript:
http://www.wait-till-i.com/index.php?p=211

--
Chris Heilmann
Book: http://www.beginningjavascript.com
Blog: http://www.wait-till-i.com
Writing: http://icant.co.uk/

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Tue, Jan 02 2007 2:50AM
Subject: Re: do i need to have default submit button for every form?
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On Tue, 2 Jan 2007, Christian Heilmann wrote:

>> Do I need to have a default submit button for every form in the application?
>
> How else would you submit a form without JavaScript or hitting enter
> and only send the first button?

By clicking on some other submit button, I presume. The question seems to
imply the presence of several submit buttons. That's always a problem,
since browser behavior is not well-defined then. The safe way is to have
one submit button only, or (sometimes) several submit buttons with
identical meaning, and to use other controls to make choices _before_
clicking on the button, not _when_ clicking on a button.

But on second thought, it might also use the phrase "a default submit
button" to refer to a button that is created by a browser for an <input
type="submit" ...> element by default. That is, "default" would mean
"common", "normal".

Then my guess is that the question is related to using a form for
_navigation_. In such approaches, it is common to omit the submit button,
because navigation is supposed to take place when selecting an option from
a dropdown list. Of course, that would create a serious obstacle for
browsing without JavaScript. You could, though, use JavaScript to hide the
submit button. But all the problems of using dropdown menus for navigation
- a long list indeed - would remain.

> If you are worried about submit buttons being "ugly", replace them
> with JavaScript:

Alternatively, worry about accessibility and usability, not your own
esthetic dislikes.

But I think that we need a more detailed question. There are dozens of
good answers that could be souped up, but only by accident would any of
them answer the specific question, unless we can see the specific question
(preferably illustrated with a URL).

--
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/