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List:       koffice
Subject:    Re: users book about KOffice
From:       Raphael Langerhorst <raphael-langerhorst () gmx ! at>
Date:       2004-01-31 10:17:53
Message-ID: 200401311117.53471.raphael-langerhorst () gmx ! at
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On Friday 30 January 2004 18:51, Eugene Nine wrote:
> ---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
> From: "Raphael Langerhorst" <raphael-langerhorst@gmx.at>
> >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.

That's a challenge for every app/company I think. With KOffice I don't think 
the problem is that big though, because KOffice is part of KDE it is known 
(at least the existence) to most people that use/know KDE. Adding the 
presence of a book you can buy ... say at amazon ... it will make KOffice a 
potential choice for more people. But, to avoid misunderstanding, my intend 
is not to push(?) KOffice on anyone, it's rather to give people the 
opportunity to learn more about KOffice and give them the feeling that they 
are supported by the book. If someone considers to switch/choose a office 
suite who has hundreds of documents to handle than the person feels safer to 
choose a office suite that has "public" support (in that case, a book gives 
this impression).

> >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.

exactly, but as Seth pointed out:

> 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.

the online help "can" be extended. Although I wouldn't like the online help to 
be too full. Personally I would vote for a lean and mean (and complete!) 
online help to work with KOffice _and_ a full, good to read, nice book to get 
to know KOffice.

>
> >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 agree, the point is a standardized format - and to tell you the truth, the 
format change of KOffice is the main reason for me to use it ... well, and 
then I found out about it's usability :)
Because I think many people already use OOo and more will. So interoperability 
with OOo is surely a great advantage. As someone said one or two months ago, 
OOo is today and KOffice is the future for KDE desktops. I think OOo and 
KOffice will coexist for quite some time and I am really glad that these two 
can work together so seemlessly (in the near future).

Besides: I also have no MS Word 2000

greetings,
Raphael
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