Acting Like a Naughty Kid
Software should when exporting data
- remember where the exported files have been placed the last time, if data of the source file has been exported before
- remember the format the data was exported in before
- not ask if the user wants to replace an existing file if she/he has clicked on an existing file to use its filename1
- remember all export settings if the data has been exported before
Adobe Illustrator (what else!) does none of those things, acting like a forgetful, naughty child that is in dire need of a thorough slapping … honestly.
And Microsoft Word shouldn’t insist on its own clipart folder when one wants to import a picture. Its really annoying to have to navigate to the same source folder everytime one wants to add a picture.
Word will only learn to remember the last visited folder as soon as the clipart folder is deleted. Not very intuitive.
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This behaviour should always apply, in my opinion: After all, the only reason you can click on an existing file in a Save-Dialogue is to use its name, therefore already expressing your intention to replace the file. Only if a manually entered filename matches an existing filename, the user should be asked if she/he wants to replace the existing file. The chance that you didn’t want to replace the existing file (i.e. by ‘forgetting’ to add a number to the filename) is almost non-existent. To prevent data-loss, the existing file could be moved to the trash and would be recoverable in such a case. ↩