Grammar on not saved message

[philiprbrenan]

Please consider using the phrase:

Shall I save this file?

instead of "The file ... is not saved".

The future subjunctive indicates that there is doubt as to how to proceed.

The current message indicates the possibility that the file might not have an afterlife once it has been deleted or that it is has never been saved: I do not think that either of these possibilities is universally true.

Also, please consider the use of "Trash" instead of "don't save". The current arrangement does not imply that anything bad will happen if you do not save the file, while the word "Trash" tells us more explicitly that the changes will be trashed and, being shorter, could then be written in a larger font to compel the user's attention to this undesirable outcome.

Finally, may I urge that the save and trash options should be placed as far apart as possible to minimize the opportunities for pressing the wrong button?

Thanks!

[codebrainz]

Another alternative:

The file 'foo.txt' contains changes that haven't been saved to disk.
Would you like to Save changes to disk now or Discard the unsaved changes?

And then re-label the "Don't save" button to simply say "Discard".