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How do you interact with forms?

I got into a debate at the office about the differences between the default and the expected operation of form elements. I'm curious about other opinions on the subject.

Examples>> w/ questions.

1. You encounter a text field and a submit button which is part (or whole) of a form. The default behavior for the form in standard, vanilla HTML is that you type in the text field, and click the button to submit. Other default behavior here is that you can type into the field and press enter, and the form will submit.
   
   a. Which do you do more often, Click or Enter to submit? Do you expect the form to work both ways?
   
   
2. If you have a stand-alone select box (sometimes called drop-down lists), do you expect it to operate like a "jump-menu," utilizing Javascript to submit the form when you change the menu? Does it depend on the context? (i.e. if it appears in a navigational area on a page.)
   
   a. Which behavior do you prefer - the one using onchange, or not?
   
   
3. If a select box has a submit button next to it, and you alter its state (by choosing an option) do you expect to be able to hit enter and have it submit the form?
   
   
4. If you encounter a field set within a larger form collecting a telephone number in a segmented format, meaning that there are 3 short fields for the different "parts" of the number, do you expect that the form will use Javascript to advance you from field to field?
   
   a. I know most heavy web users have tripped on forms that have and haven't implemented this "feature". Is there a way to indicate to users, "keep typing"?
   

In examples 2-4, there's a clear difference between the default behavior, and an often encountered "enhanced" behavior. My perspective is that if the enhancement makes things easier and faster, then it makes the interface better as long as it's "intuitive" for people learn how to operate. But if you're trying to keep things a simple as possible, then perhaps using only the default set of behaviors would be a better option.

What do you think?

posted by Brian @ 8:28 AM