Import "Done" Button

[dwterry]

Two questions and a gripe:
1) What is the purpose of the "Done" button on the Import dialog?
2) Has it always existed or is it a new addition?

After getting everything set to import (keywords added, etc), I keep accidentally clicking the "Done" button, which might as well be "Cancel" because the effect is that absolutely nothing happens (except wasting my time because now I have to start completely over and this time watch for the "Import" button).

I swear it hasn't always been this way.  Am I right?  Is the "Done" button a new addition? Because I've been using Lightroom since v1.0 was released and I don't ever remember having this problem, only recently have I started accidentally hitting the "Done" button. That's what makes me think it is new.  And if it truly is as useless as it seems ... why not get rid of it?  There is already a "Cancel" button, we don't need two buttons that both effectively cancel the import process.

[Just Shoot Me]

1] I have wondered the same thing. I have never Clicked it to see what exactly it is supposed to be for but I suspect it is for creating import presets and or setting default settings that are used everytime the import dialog is opened without actuially Importing any images.

2] It is a New addition, Feature. As far as I know there was No documentation on it in the Release notes and I have gone back several versions release notes. I don't recall when I first saw the Done button in the Import dialog window but it isn't there in Lr 5.7.1.

Then I suggest you be more accurate with your cursor before clicking the left button on your mouse.

[dwterry]

It's not an accuracy issue ... it's more like having driven the same car for 13 years suddenly someone moved the break pedal and when I simply step where I expect it to be, something different happens.  It's called "muscle memory".  Things are not the way they used to be, and my "muscle memory" has not yet adapted.

[Just Shoot Me]

But it is an Accuracy issue. Likw if you buy a New car and the radio and heater/AC controls are in a different spot.

Retrain your muscle.

[DdeGannes]

If you use your mouse to hover over the Done button for a couple of seconds there will be a popup which displays what effect it will have. I believe this is a common function in LrC.

[JohanElzenga · Accepted solution]

This is something new and was actually requested. When you click 'Cancel', Lightroom will forget what you have just selected and fall back to your previous import settings. When you click 'Done', Lightroom will also cancel the actual import but it will store the settings you just made in memory for next time.

[PhotographyMD]

Thank you.

What a horrible thing to name this button. I was on the 3rd "Import" before I noticed that all that was being created were the Collections. No photos were brought into Lightroom and a fair amount of time was wasted trying to find them before realizing this.

[virgo47]

Luckily I could find this answer and now I understand the reason for it. But the execution is poor I guess. It really is the first thing to press. Is "Done" the wrong name? Is "Import" just next to it? Yes, but we're used to software with buttons with wrong names already. "Done" is the first "positive" button in the way. Just for an example, I could imagine a dropdown button, like an arrow on Import that would serve this probably way less used function so it's still possible (which is of course important), but doesn't stand in the way so much.

However, now at least I understand why it's there. But the naming, placement and its prominence is all off.

(As this is my first post here and I started with LrC few weeks ago, I'd like to say that in overall it's a great software. Sure, not without problems, e.g. working with People is incredibely slow and unresponsive, but Develop is just magical.)

[Chris Goldthorpe]

Just because something was requested does not mean that it was implemented well. I think that Adobe needs to listen to the feedback on this thread. It seems that with a minor tweak we could retain this functionality but at the same time make it harder for users to shoot themselves in the foot.

[default9n4btizvmhb7]

It just happened to me (clicking Done instead of Import). I start over, found all my import settings restored BUT the Keywords I choose, the field is now empty. I suspect this behavior is a "bug" considering the intended functionality for the Done button?

[Rob_Cullen]

I consider that a blank keyword field would be intended functionality.  Consider if you imported photos of New York and saved the KW "New York",  using the [done] button. Would you want your next import of Washington photos to have KW "New York"?

Most every Import I do requires different Keywords.

[richardplondon]

I would agree that resetting to a blank "apply during import" set of keywords is better and safer than for (perhaps without realising) bulk keywording to persist from one import, to the following one.

I handle this through an import preset  that I faithfully re-select by name every single time.

This re-initialises everything to a known, tried and tested state,

Bulk keywording is the only thing I generally change in the Import screen, so if there could be a checkbox option on that to auto-clear its contents, I would not say no! Then I would not need to re-select that import preset. Of course if other import settings might get individualised besides, that method remains useful.

[default9n4btizvmhb7]

I would have guessed that after I hit the "import" button then the keywords
would reset to zero, like some other settings. I thought the "Done" button
would be a temporary pause, like saving the "draft import settings" while
you are not ready to start importing and needs to close the program / turn
off the computer. Until you actually import the settings would be saved,
then reset after importing.

[Ian Lyons · Accepted solution]

It was added with 9.4 follwoing mutiple requests on the Lightroom Feedback forum.

As Ddegannes has shown, it enables the User to exit the Import window with the current seetings (excluded import source) whereas these were previously ignored.

A similar button exists in the Export window.

[islandfella]

I hate that done button. My issue is the same as dwterry - I feel exactly the same way. The reason why I am here is because I jjust googled in search of an option to disable the "done" button. It is a waste of time! After all these years, it is second nature to click the leftmost button to import. By instinct, I click it only for nothing to happen. Place it in another position, if it is that it is useful to some people. Or else, give me the option to disable it.

[DuanePDX]

It would have been better if placed to the right of where it is now.

[Wm Schwartz]

Completely agree. Import is an action -- you either do it or cancel the action. You don't "Done" the import 😉 I press it all the time by mistake, and I know that it's there. Muscle memory and years of workflow.

Here's a suggestion, make it a user setting to remove it from the UI.

Anyhow, just thought I'd chime in.

-Wm

[Conrad_C]

---

@Wm Schwartz wrote:

Completely agree. Import is an action -- you either do it or cancel the action. You don't "Done" the import 😉 I press it all the time by mistake, and I know that it's there. Muscle memory and years of workflow.

---

Until this changes, or in case it does not change, I have been suggesting this as a way to re-calibrate muscle memory:

The positions of buttons did not change. In earlier versions, Cancel and Import were the last two buttons. They are still the last two buttons. The Done button is just a new one on the left. The way to get it right every time, regardless of version, is to train muscle memory to always click the button at the right end. It hasn’t moved or changed, it has always been Import.

[BlueRajasmyk]

It's insane to me how Adobe products are the most-used products by designers world-wide, yet have some of the most horrible designs across the entire industry.

Did no one think to maybe have a warning dialog before wiping out hours of 'import' progress? Or grouping the two 'cancel' buttons, rather than throwing the actual "complete this dialog" button between them? Or giving the second cancel button a better name than "Done"?

[richardplondon]

So adding "Done" now makes these screens consistent with Adobe Camera Raw's very similar Cancel / Done / Open.

The effective difference between ACR's Cancel and Done, is that with the latter you won't have discarded the work you have just done in the interface, if for whatever reason you don't want to take the image(s) into PS right now (Open would silently include a Done action also).

Similarly in LrC you may customise the export settings for a new export, and then remember you'd forgotten to complete some Develop work on the images. So you come out and complete that work. With only Export and Cancel buttons available, you'd probably click Cancel assuming you don't want to get an unwanted Export underway yet. And then when you returned to Export all those export settings would need to be customised again. Adding Done means you can now come out, do what else you need, then return to the same point you'd previously got to. (Export / Import have always silently included a Done action).

[BlueRajasmyk]

Adding Done means you can now come out, do what else you need, then return to the same point you'd previously got to.

By @richardplondon

Except, you don't. At all. You lose all the progress you made choosing which photos to import, which is the primary purpose of that dialog, and where 99% of the time is spent. It doesn't even remember which path you were importing from. The only thing that's actually saved is the 5 or so options on the right, a laughably small amount of work which should be saved automatically, not requiring pressing a confusing new button.

Even a mediocre designer could tell you that having two cancel buttons, and putting them to the left/right of the actual completion button, and not differentiating them using any sort of hue or lightness or icon or tooltip, and giving one of them a name that implies it's a completion button when it's not, is horrible HORRIBLE design. The fact that anyone thought ANYTHING ABOUT THIS BUTTON was a good solution is absurd.

[richardplondon]

You may indeed lose some of your selections for Import (such as, checkmarks for specific images), though there are all sorts of other matters that you won't lose. But my comments cited an example of Export. In that case you will have previously chosen some images to Export, and will find that selection still active.

Interface consistency is no bad thing. [Done] does not in my opinion normally denote completion. Colloquially, when someone uses "done" they will mean there's nothing more of this task still to happen - it's finished with, for now. That's the connotation I read this with.

[OK] (or more specifically [Import], [Export] etc) carries the thing out and then exits, remembering settings for the next time where this is relevant. So that's the "completion" button AFAICT.

[Apply] carries out a change of settings elsewhere, but then remains in the same screen - I don't know of any instances of this one within LrC.

[Cancel] exits without doing the thing and forgets any changed settings.

[Done] exits without doing the thing, but does not forget your changed settings.

[dj_paige]

It's insane to me how Adobe products are the most-used products by designers world-wide, yet have some of the most horrible designs across the entire industry.

By @BlueRajasmyk

I think, as a LrC user, that it is very well designed, nothing horrible about it. And a definite improvement over what used to be there. Well done, Adobe!

[howardsony2]

I would suggest that in the vast majority of cases we are in the import/export dialogoe to actually do those total actions i.e when all the settings are done we actually do want to import or export
How many times does one go in to just reset the parameters and ne4ed to use Done?
It's all very well saying to retrain muscle memory but that is not the answer as it is the brain that will often say - "Oh it's the left hand button that I've used sometimes before"
We tend to work/read left to right so the order should maybe be
EXPORT ( yes , in caps or bold please) Done, Cancel

[DdeGannes]

You only need to use the Done button when you wish to create a specific import profile, that you want to be present every time you import.

If Lightroom there are multiple ways to complete various tasks. Presets, mouse functions and keyboard shortcuts. If you do not like the Done button there is no need to use it.

For my workflow I never use it but am aware what it achieves.

It was introduced in LrC version 9.4 see the screen capture.