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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Re: Fwd: Re: KOffice's usability
From:       Mike McBride <mpmcbride7 () yahoo ! com>
Date:       2002-11-08 18:33:39
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On Friday November 08 2002 11:37 am, Sven Lueppken wrote:
>  I put usability on top of my personal
> TODO list as I would really like to see a cleaned up KOffice 1.3 :) (Yes,
> that also means I volunteer to work together with the usability team ;) So,
> what do you think?

I agree, that there are areas in KWord which need some interface 
work/consistancy.

[text deleted....]

> the initial document dialog that appears when first starting up a koffice
> app has several problems IMHO.. some things that would help it:
>
>  o make "Open a recent document" another tab on "Create document from
> template" tab widget
>  o get rid of "Start with an empty document" and just have that as one of
> the templates

All of these are good ideas, but I think there is one additional problem with 
this dialog.....The templates are grouped by whether they are Text oriented 
or DTP documents, not based on groupings that make sense to a user.  
Additionally, as a user, you must search for the template you want AND the 
paper size you want for any template to be usable.  This is very easy with 
our 7 templates, but will become cumbersom when we create additional 
templates for each paper size.

I would suggest the following:

1) At the top of this dialog, is a paper size selction widget (dropdown 
box/radio buttons, whatever).  The default value of this selection would be 
based on the localization of the machine (US English = letter, Australia = 
A4, etc).  In general, the user would not need to adjust this selector at 
all--it would just work.  If they need to, however, it is available for quick 
alteration.

2) The templates that fill the dialog box are limited to those templates of 
the appropriate paper size.  These available templates are listed according 
to groupings that make sense to a user (Personal letters, Newsletters, 
Business reports, etc), not by whether they are text oriented or DTP.

3) To seperate out for the user which templates are DTP and which are text 
oriented, would be done with the icon that represents the template.  An 
example would be that the "preview" of the page icon would have letters along 
the bottom corner of the icon if it was a text oriented document, and 
pictures if it was a DTP document template.  (An very quick cut and paste 
version of a Fax template as shown if it was a text oriented document, and 
the same document if it was saved as a DTP template are included).

This layout makes a lot more sense to a user who will say:  "I need to start 
KWord because I want to write a letter to my mom", or "I need to start KWord 
to generate a memo for the department on the new thimble designs...."  

Very few non developers say:  "I need to start KWord so I can used a Text 
oriented template to write a letter on A4 paper to my mom....."

If you need any non-programming help, I will be happy to help (rearrange the 
template directories, create appropriate templates for all sizes of paper, 
etc....)
-- 
Mike McBride
mpmcbride7@yahoo.com
KWord documentation writer
["DTP.png" (image/png)]
["TextOriented.png" (image/png)]
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