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“Right click and save as” needs to go away

svarden.se

1–10 of 194 posts

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#2
I HATE sites that force downloading! I often have a 50+ MBit/sec connection and want to be able to choose between having a PDF (e.g. a invoice - all I need is the amount and the bank data) render in the browser so I can discard it after using (here: wiring the money) and not having to do:

1) download it

2) open it

3) do what I want to do

4) delete the file (which requires me to open the download folder, locate the file and delete it).

If I forget step 4, I usually end up with a clusterfuck of a download directory (mine has 20 GB already in half a year, most of it is one-off downloads!).

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#3

I HATE sites that force downloading! I often have a 50+ MBit/sec connection and want to be able to choose between having a PDF (e.g. a invoice - all I need is the amount and the bank data) render in the browser so I can discard it after using (here: wiring the money) and not having to do: 1) download it 2) open it 3) do what I want to do 4) delete the file (which requires me to open the download folder, locate the fi…

Browsers (or site owners) could probably do a better job of differentiating links with download attributes. Maybe on mouse over show a little download cursor or something.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#4
Right click and save-as might be annoying but it's also a critical piece of our tinkering economy. I don't want to use a client that prohibits me from downloading the web unless it's specified as "permissible" by the author. This is a step in that direction.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#6
post #4

Right click and save-as might be annoying but it's also a critical piece of our tinkering economy. I don't want to use a client that prohibits me from downloading the web unless it's specified as "permissible" by the author. This is a step in that direction.

Quite possibly, but that's not relevant to this article.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#7

I HATE sites that force downloading! I often have a 50+ MBit/sec connection and want to be able to choose between having a PDF (e.g. a invoice - all I need is the amount and the bank data) render in the browser so I can discard it after using (here: wiring the money) and not having to do: 1) download it 2) open it 3) do what I want to do 4) delete the file (which requires me to open the download folder, locate the fi…

1) I don't think your use case / preference is that common. I'd venture that most of the time a download is preferable; I know that's the case for me.

2) Even if I'm wrong about 1), it's hard to argue that there is never a good time to force a download, and so this is a useful feature to know about. I wasn't aware of it so appreciated the post.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#8
For everyone complaining that they don't want to be forced to download--just have two buttons:

March Invoice: View - Download

This is much clearer for the average user than a single link with hidden right click functionality. Currently clicking on a link you have no idea what you're going to get.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#9

Take a lesson from the user backlash that happens every time a browser removes a feature: Don't do that. The best you can do is encourage developers to use an alternative. The worst you can do is to force it on people who don't share your point of view.

He isn't saying that browsers should remove the "Save as..."-feature. However, he is suggesting that browsers and websites should implement the download-attribute, which he believes will make the need for "Save as..." go away in those cases.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#10

I HATE sites that force downloading! I often have a 50+ MBit/sec connection and want to be able to choose between having a PDF (e.g. a invoice - all I need is the amount and the bank data) render in the browser so I can discard it after using (here: wiring the money) and not having to do: 1) download it 2) open it 3) do what I want to do 4) delete the file (which requires me to open the download folder, locate the fi…

From the Firefox normal behaviour, I imagine it would ask you whether you wish to open the file in the OS registered handler or save it. If you tell it to use an external program, FF downloads to temp, not to the Downloads directory.

So, no clusterfuck. Anyhow you are right about the lag caused by downloading the whole file.

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