Hi Cor,
You careful reply is very much appreciated.
Cor Nouws wrote:
Hi Mike,
Mike Hall wrote:
Having said I wouldn't write anything, I've been prompted to do so by
further comments from users. A draft document seeking to convince the
community that more needs to be done on basic functionality is at
www.onepoyle.net/ooo/doc/ooo_minimum_functionality.odt
Thanks for sending this. However. I'm not sure if it is fair, or if it
was meant, that you do it in this way..
Yes, I guessed that, but I needed to start somewhere.
As you have read before on this list, the process ...
So maybe more appropriate is a poll/discussion on
[email protected] on most needed, missed features. And done in
plain text e-mail.
But be aware: buy you some extra band-with ;-)
OK, thanks, I understand that and I will try it when time allows.
- If it does, where would it be best to place to verify it and,
possibly different, the best place to put it to influence senior OOo
decision makers and developers?
With the results of that, you can go to the already mentioned lists
and issuezila. And then you have various way to raise interest for the
items. And because of the development process (what is where all
should end) a seperate issue for each item is needed ...
It is a long road, but I do not see a better one. (Unless you can find
way's to hire developers to include 'your' wishes.)
I understand the overall process that individual issues are needed and
why (though in many cases I bet they are there already and it's priority
we'll be talking about). However, I'm also seeking to influence the
setting of priorities so that some of the little boring things are fixed
quicker. It's easy to find examples in current issues where the effort
in discussing what to do, even by the developer, exceeds the effort to
fix the bug.
In respect of the examples I gave, I was more concerned about the
principles than the specifics, however in order to demonstrate why I
thought they were important, I will defend them just this once...
Some comments on your list:
- Text colour in Writer: can't hardly imagine that it is a serious
issue, really affecting peoples work;
This one originally arose from the chairman of a prominent local
organisation I'm seeking to influence to adopt OOo. She was endeavouring
to redesign headed notepaper and hit the problem of not being able to
work with an out-of-palette colour. So, I got asked about it. For her it
was a serious issue, as it would be for any basic user needing to work
out-of-palette because, even if you know where to go to add colours, you
can't add your own within Writer unless you can find out its colour
components.
- Hyperlink: cursor in the text and pressing Ctrl-Shft-Space (or
Format|Default) removes the Hyperlink. A matter of knowing how OOo works;
OK, thanks, I should have known as I've been working with styles for
years. I also expect to work out how an application works. However, is
it reasonable to argue that the comment 'it's a matter of knowing how
OOo works' makes my point? I would never dare to say that to a basic
user (though I would show them what to do) because the response would
reasonably be 'I shouldn't need to know how OOo works if it's designed
properly'. I spent a long time - well over an hour - working on this
after yet another user encountered the problem. Even a Google search
didn't come up with your solution, but it did illustrate how many people
were getting frustrated by hyperlinks in Writer.
- Spaces with dragging: I nearly always work with the key board,
however can imagine that it is annoying for people using the mouse.
I'm thinking of asking people to nominate just one issue. This might be
mine!
--
Mike Hall
www.onepoyle.net
