docs / file menu: explain how to exit the notebook

[timmie]

The Notebook page is still very basic.

A issue that always confuses me and resulted in data loss today:

How to I quit a notebook saving my work?

File -> Close and Halt
==> Kernel apparently stopped and all data lost!

File -> Save
==> Work saves but notebook still active.

What I miss:

File -> Exit (halt) saving changes.

Or better:
When I exit (halt) a pop-up:
"Do you want to save or discard the changes.

[timmie]

see also: #1378

[timmie]

IPython.__version__
Out[3]:

'0.13.1'

[timmie]

Is it OK?
Seems I mix 2 things here.

[minrk]

There is a dialog if you try to navigate away from a page with unsaved changes (this includes closing with ^W or Close & Halt or just Close) - if this is not occurring, there is a bug in the detection of changes (the dirty flag in the notebook), and may have since been fixed in master.

In general, this will probably be addressed by #3158, since it will become impossible to close the notebook page without saving changes (to the autosave file, at least).

[timmie]

There is a dialog if you try to navigate away from a page with unsaved changes (this includes closing with ^W or Close & Halt or just Close)

Yes, but it still does not tell what to do to save the whole stuff.

Why not be a bit clear for the not-so-every-day user:

File -> Exit (halt) saving changes.

or

When I exit (halt) a pop-up:
"Do you want to save or discard the changes? YES/NO"

It would add more usability.

[minrk]

After PR #3158, it will save changes. It will no longer be possible to discard changes.

[timmie]

Well, I was just trying to suggest a more intuitive wording for the dialogues/menus.

But if it's a won't fix then feel free to close.

[minrk]

Sorry, I mainly mean that what wording is most appropriate will change, since with autosave there won't ever be unsaved changes for the user to make decisions about.

[ivanov]

this one's been tagged as "docs" so i'll tackle it

[ellisonbg]

I think the current behavior is fine, @ivanov are you ok if we close this?

[minrk]

@ellisonbg this is marked as a docs issue, not a bug in behavior.

[timmie]

@minrk

It was an issue before the auto-save was implemented -- at that point it was not clear how to exit & save..

Can be closed at all.

[ellisonbg]

@minrk what I meant was that I think that now that we have autosave, there isn't any significant confusion about what the "Close and Halt" menu item does that needs documentation.

[ivanov]

At some point I also added this title="Shutdown this notebook's kernel, and close this window" to that menu item, as well, which appears on hover over the menu item in most browsers, so I think we're all good here. (67cd531 was the commit)

[minrk]

Thanks for clarifying. Makes sense to me now.