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Possible Duplicate:
Add a cancel button when editing an answer

Why there is not a Cancel Button for a editing.
Suppose i tried to edit a post and click on edit, it will go to edit mode.
and think of cancel the edit. But didn't find any link for that. the only option is to Save the edit or press the back button of the browser. Why does SO hate the Cancel Button?

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4 Answers 4

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If you begin an edit and then decide you don't want to actually go through with the edit, then you get a nice and very annoying pop up when you click the back button.

This is why I think a cancel button should be added.

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  • at least this reason provides a rationale Feb 11, 2011 at 6:39
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    The only problem being that there's no way for client-side script to close the current browser tab unless the page is created by the script in the first page, so you would still need two clicks to close the page, which just doesn't help...
    – Yi Jiang
    Feb 11, 2011 at 7:50
  • @Yi Jiang, yea, that's very true. I commonly edit in another tab(it's about 50/50). Maybe we just need the warning message to be gotten rid of. Possibly a draft-saving feature like with questions/answers?
    – Earlz
    Feb 11, 2011 at 9:10
  • You'd rather disable the warning for the Back button? Please no! Imagine clicking on some erroneous character in the preview, not immediately realizing your cursor is no longer in the edit box after that, and then hit backspace to try to delete it?
    – Arjan
    Feb 11, 2011 at 11:16
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Wouldn't cancel be exactly, exactly the same as clicking the back button in your browser?

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  • so it seems there wont be any user who click on save without any edits? also, entering a comment has a cancel link?
    – Binil
    Feb 11, 2011 at 6:14
  • @bini editing a comment does not take you to a different web page, does it? Feb 11, 2011 at 6:20
  • If you begin an edit and then decide you don't want to actually go through with the edit, then you get a nice and very annoying pop up when you click the back button.
    – Earlz
    Feb 11, 2011 at 6:33
  • @binil, @Jeff, @Earlz: also can click on question title. this will also cancel edit.
    – Harry Joy
    Feb 11, 2011 at 6:34
  • @Harry true, why not something a bit more explicit though? I usually don't think to do that. Don't make me think! :)
    – Earlz
    Feb 11, 2011 at 6:35
  • Not for me. For some reason, if I take a long enough time editing the post, it does an autosave backup for me which doesn't post the edits, but keeps a copy for me and shows it when I try to ask a new question. I suppose clearing cookies/cache would probably resolve it, but I shouldn't need to do that.
    – user165783
    Jul 23, 2011 at 8:00
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You do not need a cancel button explicitly. Until you click on save edit, your edits are not committed. So you can just navigate anywhere out of that edit to cancel your edits.

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I would rather that sites didn't interfere with your back button, which should take you back to where you were before without invoking any strange behaviour.

Assume users know what they are doing when they hit it.

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