From koffice Sat Jan 31 02:22:59 2004 From: Seth Kurtzberg Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2004 02:22:59 +0000 To: koffice Subject: Re: users book about KOffice Message-Id: <63398F6B-5394-11D8-B0BF-000A959AF1CE () cql ! com> X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=koffice&m=107551582425606 On Jan 30, 2004, at 10:51 AM, Eugene Nine wrote: > > > ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- > From: "Raphael Langerhorst" > Reply-To: For discussion about KOffice > Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 18:03:41 +0100 (MET) > >>> On Friday 30 January 2004 16:05, Seth Kurtzberg wrote: >>>> I've been watching the discussion and wondering when this would come >>>> up. The justification for doing this rather than enhancing the >>>> online >>>> documentation is? >>>> >>> >>> A good point, I totally agree with you that the parts of the book >>> covering >>> the >>> individual apps can just as well be added to the online help, there >>> are >>> only >>> a few differences for me: >>> >>> Motivation for writing a book would be: >>> * you can put more background knowledge/... in it wheras the online >>> help >>> should be straight forward >>> * you can build on top of previous chapters in the book, like "a >>> guided >>> tour >>> through KOffice" wheras the online help should be understandable >>> when you >>> only read that very bit of it you need (IMHO). >> >> sorry, forgot about that one: >> * people that read the online doc already have KOffice installed... >> which >> means that they at least consider using it as an office suite (or >> their distro >> installed it by default). With a book you normally can reach people >> that are >> "evaluating" things before they use it. And I think the time where >> many >> people blindly use MS Office is more and more past, There are more >> than 5 books on >> OOo in German language alone for example. My feeling is that people a) >> should have the possibiltiy to evaluate their software and b) that >> people that >> truly evaluate software are often first searching for a book about it. >> > Thats a good point, however what will make people want to search out > and buy a book on an office app they don't know about? There would > have to be some way to dray interest to the book. > >>> >>> >>> But I fully agree with you that actually the online help should be >>> improved >>> rather than writing a full book. >> >> but this statement still holds for sure. What about this timeline: >> >> first... >> * improving/completing the online help >> then... >> * writing the book which can partly be derived/based on the online >> help >> >> I think with the roadmap(?) we have for KOffice we have enough time >> for >> both: online help and a book, provided that there are enough people >> working on >> these. I think documentation is important, although less than 10% are >> actually >> using it... but I myself just bought a book about OpenOffice.org (and >> didn't >> want to read the online help because I prefer reading a "real" book, >> although >> the online help of OpenOffice.org is surely very good(?)). >> >> Online help IMO is important while working with the application (yes, >> I >> sometimes read a few things up in OOo's online help) while a book is >> important >> for getting to know the application. >> > I personally think that online help should be short and simple. If > I'm in an app and need to know how to do something I should be able to > within a couple clicks drill down to those instructions. I don't want > to stop and read background of the app, etc. I find myself not using > the online help much because its too time consuming. For example I > was playing with frames to see what I could do with outlining. I > tried to drap and drop a frame in the document structure pane but it > didn't allow me to do so. Pull up the help, scroll down a few pages > and find the chapter on frames, skim down, hit next, skim down some > more, next, etc. I think online help should be no more than one > screen full of information at a time so I can quickly get the answer > and go. OK, but that doesn't prevent you from having a button you can click on to go to a more detailed treatment. The user experience can be unchanged. >> >> And, another reason for writing a book would be: >> * KOffice has more potential because it builds on very good ground >> (QT/KDE) >> whereas OOo has nothing they can build upon (=much more source code = >> harder >> to handle = redundant work). So in the long run KOffice will be the >> better >> application - and a book would make good PR. But I must really say >> that I'm sad >> about the fact that there need to be multiple OSS office suites, but >> maybe >> this is needed because of diverse(?) interest of people... >> > Having multiple office apps isn't necessarily a bad thing. If we only > had one then we would begin to fall into the lack of choice trap of > the Windows world. There are those Linux users who dislike KDE for > whatever reason and would still prefer to use OO. I think the biggest > thing we need to do is standardize file formats so one doesn't have to > import/export. Example now is the windows world, the standard is > pretty much MSOffice docs, you can be sure that if you e-mail a resume > in word 2000 the receiver will have word 2000, its become an > assumption that anyone you send your docs to or anyone whom downloads > from your website will be able to open a word doc with minimal work. > Once we get to a standard format we can then start to make that same > assumption and simply send documents without worry if the user has the > program installed with proper import filters. Thats something we > already know, but what it will allow if the user to use his preference > of program to open the doc so there will still be room to > compete/differ in useability. I don't have word 2000. > >> greetings, >> Raphael >> >> -- >> +++ Mailpower für Multimedia-Begeisterte: http://www.gmx.net/topmail >> +++ >> 250 MB Mailbox, 1 GB Online-Festplatte, 100 FreeSMS. Jetzt kostenlos >> testen! >> >> ____________________________________ >> koffice mailing list >> koffice@mail.kde.org >> To unsubscribe please visit: >> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/koffice >> > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Sent via the HostPortal WebMail system at ninefamily.com > > > > > > ____________________________________ > koffice mailing list > koffice@mail.kde.org > To unsubscribe please visit: > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/koffice > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- Seth Kurtzberg CTO ISEC Research and Network Operations Center 480-314-1540 888-879-5206 seth@isec.us ----------------------------------------------------------------- ____________________________________ koffice mailing list koffice@mail.kde.org To unsubscribe please visit: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/koffice