From koffice-devel Thu Jun 13 15:11:11 2002 From: Thomas Zander Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 15:11:11 +0000 To: koffice-devel Subject: Re: Bug#43832: No way to set default page to open up by default X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=koffice-devel&m=102398149020057 MIME-Version: 1 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="--yrj/dFKFPuw6o+aM" --yrj/dFKFPuw6o+aM Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Thu, Jun 13, 2002 at 04:12:00PM +0200, NOLARD Michel wrote: > Le Jeudi 13 Juin 2002 09:47, Emmanuel Touzery a ?crit : > > Hello, > >=20 > > Personnally i'm not bothered by this screen at the beginning of koffic= e=20 > > programs (so don't expect me to send a patch :O) ), but i think there i= s=20 > > maybe a better solution (?). > > asking the user is The Good Thing. now, do we really need to steal him= the=20 > > focus and force him to click on OK? >=20 > In fact, this IS the problem : some users want to get rid of this superfl= uous click (my sister, for example), while others (like me) prefer having t= he choice... > Definitely, it is the point where work is needed ! I think that before ad= ding functionnalities, a series of usability polls should be made about KOf= fice... I see it more like a wizard. I'm actually thinking of putting more pages in= that dialog if we have functionality like macro's which can 'adjust' the page wi= th=20 things like fax-templates and love-letter templates etc.=20 A nice wizard that allows you to fill in your fax-default values and then g= ives you a filled in page with the cursor blinking in the content area and the n= umber etc filled in seems like something lots of people will like. If you don't want all that, just press enter one time seems like a very nic= e=20 way to provide this functionality (in the future) while still=20 - having a minimum of dialogs on screen in all situations - staying consistent; a New Document will always do the same thing. - provide a linear workflow instead of a single point where the user has to look for a way to go in order to do what he wants to do. I.e. guide the use= r. - following the styleguide. > Another example is the "close the last document" thing : the user is work= ing 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 closin= g all previous opened document if he doesn't want to "suffer" the loading t= ime 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. Yes, I have seen the problem. You don't want the window to stay open, but y= ou still=20 want the functionality it provides. That's an impossible situation. We solved it by allowing a Close. This allows you to close the document, bu= t not the window. Hope this is what you were after. The bottom line is that this is due to the SDI manner of working, and it ha= ppens with all unix applications. Also with lots of Windows applications. > 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 au= tomatically display header or footer... Well, the header/footer are actually turned on with this, so there was no r= oom for it=20 to click on. Hmm, perhaps this should be called differently, at least it should not be i= n the View menu. Hmm, you have an idea on where the current functionality should go? > 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 th= e user has to use an application before discovering its exciting new functi= onnalities... I try to keep new functionality in line with the current train of thoughts,= that is because I believe we are going in the right direction. But more so since the way t= hings are done should only be learned one time, the rest can be logically deducted. Howev= er hard people might find logical deduction, it still allows a lot lower learning curve th= en internally inconsistent GUIs have. > > Attached a shot from wordXP. check out the right of the screen. maybe = we=20 > > could have this, that phases out after a timeout (yes, i know, koffice = has=20 > > more things to do before doing this kind of things :O), but just a=20 > > "theoritical" possible improvement). > >=20 > > emmanuel >=20 > 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. I= t 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 p= urpose,... 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 di= alog, but there is no Ok, Cancel or Apply button, and it is docked in the M= ainWindow. And it disappears when needed... Actually, this has been something which is on my agenda for 3 years allread= y :) I still would very much like a number of extentions in toolbars and in the = way we use them. This would be easy to do in a toolbar. No custom-widget needed. --=20 Thomas Zander zander@planescape.c= om We are what we pretend to = be --yrj/dFKFPuw6o+aM Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE9CLYPCojCW6H2z/QRAo9nAJ9MSbUo2EFwC0/wmeLok2Z1xXoVQACdGxtC +vs1rjHfH1cnLOvJC33nRKA= =Ir6V -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --yrj/dFKFPuw6o+aM-- _______________________________________________ koffice-devel mailing list koffice-devel@mail.kde.org http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/koffice-devel