To ditch the form reset button?

[francis]

I'm seeing this more in books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/073571410X/qid=1093378993/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-4174363-2402209) and on websites (http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200408/web_development_mistakes/) (read the comments) - even the (dreaded?) Neilsen (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000416.html) seems to be against the form reset button. Initially I thought "nah, you're wrong, the reset button is an expected part of the form", but then I started to think back on how many times I'd hit that damned button instead of the submit one. I'm an experienced web user but I still that button and it irritates me intensely when I have to re-enter all of my information. Some forms have the button on the right, some on the left - there's no consistency and I, like maybe a lot of people, tend to use the Web quickly and not ponder over and read every part of each page - I hit a button and sometimes it's the wrong one.

So now I'm thinking that maybe I should stop using them; after all, all a user has to do is navigate away from the page or shut their browser and all of the information is lost. Or I could use some really simple JavaScript to force a confirm dialogue box when the user presses the reset button. But do I really want to be doing that?

What does anyone else think? Should the reset button be a thing of the past?

[David]

I think in most cases you can do without it. It's rare that you'd want to clear the content of a form. Most likely you just want to make a correction. There are maybe some instances where it makes sense, but mostly not.