cancel button?

[Crump]

Do you guys generally put cancel buttons on your forms?

For instance I have a form that requires certain entries. If you leave these empty and click submit, it processes but then spits you back to the form and shows you your errors.

I put a cancel button (not a clear button) that gets rid of all your entries and resets the errors (whereas a clear button would simply wipe out the contents of the form).

Speaking from a user standpoint do you think this cancel button is usefull, or even necessary? Does anyone use these type of buttons?

[Crump]

I guess no one has any thoughts?

[lammert]

On the forms I have designed there is no cancel button.

As a surfer I never use a cancel button. If I am halfway in the process of filling in a form and I decide to cancel, I always press the back button, close the browser window or simply type a new URL in the address bar. There are so many ways to leave a form that a cancel button is hardly needed.

Just FYI, when typing this post, I only see a Preview and a Submit button. It appears that Brett also decided that a Cancel button wasn't needed.

[kaled]

If you have a sequence of forms (like you find on insurance applications) then there might be some merit in having buttons to go back and forth ensuring that data is preserved, however, users can use either the back or close buttons for the purpose of cancellation.

Kaled.

[jomaxx]

I can't recall ever seeing a useful implementation of a clear button, although I've clicked them by accident a few times and roundly cursed out the site in question. I really don't see any need for them.

I don't quite understand your description of what your cancel button does, but to me "cancel" sounds like something you'd click after you had already clicked "submit" and were waiting for a response. IMO the button should be titled "clear" or "reset form", or maybe something slightly more descriptive if you can manage it.