[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
i'd like to ask a second time : don't cut things out until we have understanding about a way to make them available for those who wish them.
This, I believe, is the gist of your argument, so I will respond to that directly.
Someone in this thread said that OOo has more than 500 - that's Five-Hundred
- options in the preferences dialog box. If we went through and ensured
that each one was available for use somewhere - we'd never lower that number. And that number *MUST* be lowered.
I would personally disagree. I may not use (or at least not need to change) 90% of them right now. But people change, jobs change, personal interests change, and it would be useful to have software that was capable of being changed to match.
I don't care if you bury so far that it takes 57 mouse clicks to get to it
- there is no need for that many options - ever.
I can see that the Options menus can appear overwhelming (although that's a matter of taste - what seems to make you nervous I actually enjoy scrolling through once in a while just to see what I *could* do if I wanted to), but why look at them if you don't want to? As long as there is a Help function that is complete enough to point you directly to the appropriate check box for a feature you want to modify, the number of options in itself should not be a problem.
The number should be closer to 50 than 500. In fact, I'd say anything over 100 is way too much. A better interface design is a good start, but that overhaul should, must, and will result in *fewer choices*. And that is a
> Good Thing (tm).
Burying options isn't the answer. Removing them is. People like choice,
I know. But too much choice leads to confusion, bewilderment, and inaction. I don't mess with the options dialog box, because it's too much for me. I imagine I'm not the only one to feel that way.
http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun04/toomany.html
That's one psychological study about the over abundance of choices, and how
that is stifling to life in general. We don't want OOo to add to the problem, do we?
I would think that having too many choices is only a problem if you are forced to make those choices. It appears that most of the OO options, for most of us, most of the time, are perfectly acceptable in their default congfigurations, so why obsess over the fact that they exist? I mean, I could choose to chuck it all and meditate in a monastery in Tibet, but knowing the probability, I won't lay awake nights worrying if I have enough warm clothes. And I certainly don't want to ban air traffic to Tibet just because I'm unlikely to need it.
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