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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Re: Bug#43832: No way to set default page to open up by default
From:       NOLARD Michel <mnolard () info ! fundp ! ac ! be>
Date:       2002-06-13 14:12:00
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Le Jeudi 13 Juin 2002 09:47, Emmanuel Touzery a écrit :
> Hello,
> 
> 	Personnally i'm not bothered by this screen at the beginning of koffice 
> programs (so don't expect me to send a patch :O) ), but i think there is 
> maybe a better solution (?).
> 	asking the user is The Good Thing. now, do we really need to steal him the 
> focus and force him to click on OK?

In fact, this IS the problem : some users want to get rid of this superfluous click (my sister, \
for example), while others (like me) prefer having the choice... Definitely, it is the point \
where work is needed ! I think that before adding functionnalities, a series of usability polls \
should be made about KOffice...

Another example is the "close the last document" thing : the user is working on many documents, \
say in KWord. At some point, when the copy paste is finished, he begin to close all the \
windows. But, if he wants to create another doc, he has to create it BEFORE closing all \
previous opened document if he doesn't want to "suffer" the loading time for KWord, as Kword \
will exit when final document is closed. It is contra-intuitive as the user want to :
	- stop working on the current documents
	- then create a new document to work on
But he has to :
	- create an empyt new document
	- stop working on the current documents by closing them
	- start working on his new doc.

I have still another example : when a user want to edit the header or the footer, he has to go \
to View>footer or View>header, though in Word, since many years, simply double clicking in the \
supposed area is sufficient. I think this can be solved easily... as normal user don't bother \
of this, but advanced user has to do it quite often... and there is no option to automatically \
display header or footer...

You see, there are lots of usability problems like these in KOffice, and I think it should be \
something more important into developpers' minds as the user has to use an application before \
discovering its exciting new functionnalities...

 
> 	Attached a shot from wordXP. check out the right of the screen. maybe we 
> could have this, that phases out after a timeout (yes, i know, koffice has 
> more things to do before doing this kind of things :O), but just a 
> "theoritical" possible improvement).
> 
> emmanuel

I hope that noone will flame you for using Microsoft as an example. I won't start the fight ;-)
I think it is a globally new behaviour in Windows XP and XP's products. It is a good idea IMHO, \
but it has to be followed by a closer integration of this way of thought in KDE itself : \
widgets especially designed for this purpose,... But, if KOffice would show the way, I would be \
proud to be part of the movement ! ;-) This a kind of new dialog system : You use the widget \
like if it was a dialog, but there is no Ok, Cancel or Apply button, and it is docked in the \
MainWindow. And it disappears when needed...

-- 
NOLARD Michel
Délégué 2° Maîtrise et Licence en Informatique
E-mail : mnolard@info.fundp.ac.be

"Unix is user friendly. It's just very picky about who its friends are..."
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