Replacement for the 'Save' Icon?

[UncleFred]

Virtually every software application I use has a toolbar icon like a Diskette to represent the "Save' function.

But diskettes aren't used much anymore.

Has anyone seen something else (other than the word 'Save') used for this?

The only thing remotely similar I can think of is that Windows used to use an icon of a File Cabinet to represent the "File Manager" feature.

I write applications occasionally and it would be useful/interesting to know.

Thanks,

[RadicalPi]

I don't know what might replace it. What does a hard drive look like?

[Meltdown]

I don't have an answer for the OP, but it occurred to me that this icon might not change, and sometime, 20-30 years down the road, that's all it will be known for. And someone will post to this board (or whatever comparable thing exists then) -- "what are the series of squares on the Save Icon supposed to represent?"

[Mangetout]

I'm not sure it needs replacing - it's an icon that has come to mean 'save', now quite independently of the fact that is represents a physical storage medium.

Much like the UK road sign for traffic enforcement cameras (http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/tss/general/coll_newroadsignsandmarkingsleaf/dft_roads_022863-17.jpg) represents something most people have probably only seen in vintage films, if at all.

[Telemark]

And how many people still dial a phone? But it works, and we still use it.

[Mangetout]

Phone icons have pretty much kept up with the times though (or maybe trailed about ten years behind). There are push-button phone icons and icons with push buttons on a blocky handset, and mobile phone icons (admittedly, they look like 1980s cellphones, mostly).

[Reply]

Much like the UK road sign for traffic enforcement cameras (http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/tss/general/coll_newroadsignsandmarkingsleaf/dft_roads_022863-17.jpg) represents something most people have probably only seen in vintage films, if at all.

Whoa. If you didn't say so, I wouldn't have known what that was. Some sort of RF transponder for a toll booth? A special gas station? "Camera" would've been very low on the list...


Has anyone seen something else (other than the word 'Save') used for this?


I've seen a "down arrow into folder" icon, like this one (http://www.nitrodesign.com/designforlife/?p=20). Also, manual saves are rather old-school... can the program provide background autosaves with unlimited undos?

[Patty O'Furniture]

Even though not technically correct, the database icon (http://homeoinst.org/images/database_icon.jpg) would probably be a good fit. Kinda looks like a drive array.

[Chronos]

NeoOffice has already moved away from the diskette. The "save" button is an oblongish box, similar to the icon OSX uses for a mounted non-internal drive.

[Mangetout]

Whoa. If you didn't say so, I wouldn't have known what that was. Some sort of RF transponder for a toll booth? A special gas station? "Camera" would've been very low on the list...Yes. I mean, everyone here knows what it means because the price of not knowing that means 'camera' is a possible speeding ticket.

It's meant to be a representation of something like this:
http://www.vintagephoto.tv/images/seneca3.jpg

Cameras similar to that are still in use by specialist photographers, but they're just not common - and were not common even when the sign was designed.

[lobotomyboy63]

I don't know what might replace it. What does a hard drive look like?

http://www.usbyte.com/images/HDD_3.htm_txt_hard_drive2.gif

Of course by the time they get around to changing that, the technology may be obsolete as well.

[RadicalPi]

http://www.usbyte.com/images/HDD_3.htm_txt_hard_drive2.gif

Of course by the time they get around to changing that, the technology may be obsolete as well.

Good point.

[LSLGuy]

hijacking merrily along ...

I've wondered how much longer we're going to use this http://cgi.ebay.ph/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VISuperSize&item=190318381541 as the icon for a fire truck? (For non-US types, that's a pic of the US-standard road sign indicating that a fire station is nearby and you should be on the lookout for fire trucks pulling in or out)

Fire engines haven't looked like that since the 1930s or 40s.

[Quercus]

I've seen a "down arrow into folder" icon, like this one (http://www.nitrodesign.com/designforlife/?p=20). Also, manual saves are rather old-school... can the program provide background autosaves with unlimited undos?I vaguely recall seeing that kind of icon somewhere, too. Though (after checking ) it wasn't WordPerfect, Word or OpenOffice, which are all still (3.5inch) "floppy" drive icons.

[BrotherCadfael]

We spent 4000 years developing written language, and in one generation we've gone back to drawing pictures. Not sure this is progress.

[Patty O'Furniture]

We spent 4000 years developing written language, and in one generation we've gone back to drawing pictures. Not sure this is progress.

There's a lot of written code behind that little button. Probably about 4000 years worth.

[Colophon]

I'd love to know when the speed camera sign was designed. I mean, surely they didn't use speed cameras in the days when a logo designer would think that looked like a camera.

Generally, road signs seem to "freeze" what an item looked like when they were designed, which is why the cars on UK road signs look like 1960s Austins (http://www.spp.uk.com/images/140%20-%20quayside.jpg).

[Sailboat]

I propose that from now on we use a little cloud with holy light coming down and tiny Christians ascending rapturously.

[Bisected8]

They should make it a skull and crossbones. To remind everyone it'll crash just as you're about to save. ¬_¬

[jackdavinci]

Virtually every software application I use has a toolbar icon like a Diskette to represent the "Save' function.,

Very few programs that I use are so toolbar intensive that they actually have a save icon. Usually this is left for the main menu bar in text form and keyboard shortcuts. I think having GUIs with a save icon will die out long before we need to worry about recognizing a disk. In any case, the disk could easily be made to look like a memory/flashcard without much modification, or as other have mentioned, the folder with down arrow.

[EvilTOJ]

I don't have an answer for the OP, but it occurred to me that this icon might not change, and sometime, 20-30 years down the road, that's all it will be known for. And someone will post to this board (or whatever comparable thing exists then) -- "what are the series of squares on the Save Icon supposed to represent?"

This is already happening. Not too long ago my son asked me what that icon meant on the Save button. He's 12. I dug out a 3.5 floppy and showed him, but I haven't actually used one except as a boot disk in about 7 years or so.


And how many people still dial a phone? But it works, and we still use it.

Phone icons have pretty much kept up with the times though (or maybe trailed about ten years behind). There are push-button phone icons and icons with push buttons on a blocky handset, and mobile phone icons (admittedly, they look like 1980s cellphones, mostly).

Mangetout, Telemark meant we still dial a phone, but when was the last time you turned dials on a phone to call someone?

[Telperion]

I've seen some games use an arrow pointing down to a CD for "Save" and an arrow pointing up from the CD for "Load", which would still be current enough since a DVD isn't visually different.

[BobLibDem]

How about a cross- Jesus saves.