Well, I haven't figured out how to reply from the digest with
Thunderbird yet, so this is a copy/paste.
>>>5. Context menus in tables should offer many (all) table-specific
>>>operations. This could be fine-tuned to adjust to how the table is
>>>selected (cell, row,...)
>>
>> They do. Which ones are you missing?
>I just looked at it again, and OOo does seem to have decent context menu
>settings for tables. See screenshots:
>http://lairo.com/files/temp/WordPerfect_Table_Context-Menu.jpg
>http://lairo.com/files/temp/OOo_Table_Context-Menu.jpg
I don't use spreadsheets enough to comment intelligently, both menus
look good to me, but I do like the added icons in OO.o. I think WP could
improve theirs with that. Most non-technical users I work with
appreciate the little icons illustrating function.
>I do think that the context menu for images is far better in WP (e.g.,
>fine-grained Size & Position settings) than in OOo. See
>screenshots:
>http://lairo.com/files/temp/WordPerfect_Images_Context-Menu.jpg
>http://lairo.com/files/temp/OOo_Images_Context-Menu.jpg
Here I have to disagree with you. Looking at the screen shots, the WP
context menu is way too much for a simple right click. I much prefer
having sub-menus and the cleaner OO.o look. To me, just a slightly more
technically adept user using OO.o for light DTP, WP's context menus
would annoy me. The functions that I use most are right there in OO.o,
no hunting down a list that takes half the page for it. If I need the
more detailed items, there they are, simply a click away.
>>>7. Context menus need to be much more powerful (more items) and
CONTEXTUAL.
>
>> Examples?
>See screenshot of WP images CM:
>http://lairo.com/files/temp/WordPerfect_Images_Context-Menu.jpg
Once again, I find the "more powerful (more items)" context menu
annoying. I prefer the nested setup in OO.o. More efficient in that the
most used functions are right there, the more involved are easily found
in the next level.
A big part of the problem with UI's is that "U" and "I" (hee! hee!) have
different styles of working. If I suddenly jumped from being a long
time, heavy WP user to OO.o (or MS Word), I'd be pretty lost and
frustrated. Is it OO.o's fault? Is it because OO.o has an "inferior" UI?
Probably not. I've learned to find things in certain places. When it's
not there, I get lost, slow down while I'm trying to find it, and get
annoyed.
>Also ability to right-click on toolbars.
>>>8. Draw doesn't offer a sensible default line color/width and form fill
>>>color; and worse, it doesn't remember what I had previously selected
>>>(goes back to idiotic defaults).
>> Have you define these in your default template?
>No normal user will know how let alone want to do this. What is the
>target customer of OOo?
Yeah, I can agree with that! I haven't defined a template that actually
does what I intended it to yet, and I've been using OO.o since it became
OO.o! My workaround is to format the page I'm working on. A pain, but so
far, it's worked.
>>>9. Writer's UI needs to be MUCH more like WordPerfect's UI (context
>>>menus, paste-without-formatting, tables handling, tabs handling,
>>>indenting paragraph AFTER some text (F7), ...)
>> Most of these you have mentioned previously right?
>No.
>> The others you mentioned can all be done using styles.
>No they can't, and this is a non-solution for the vast majority of
>users. OOo needs more sensible and powerful default features.
"Sensible" seems to equal "WP's feature set" in your context. I submit
that WP is not necessarily the best model for all users. Not me, anyway.
>>>10. The installer should NOT install the pre-loader by default. That is
>>>just invasive, rude, and shows that the programmer couldn't properly
>>>optimize the program. What if EVERY program did that? Our PC's would
>>>come to a crawl from the load.
>> Well actually, a lot of them do. MS Windows does a lot of preloading
>> in its startup to allow MS Office to start more quickly when used.
>So you're using MS Office as a basis on making "good" decisions?
I do appreciate that the OO.o preloader is easily disabled by a right
click on the preloader icon. Ever try to get QuickTime and RealPlayer to
quit preloading after a default install? I'm not trying to justify it,
it was a decision made to try to cut the load times down to comparable
with Word. BTW, does WP have a preloader? Is it easy to disable? What if
WP comes preinstalled on your system? Not trying to provoke here, I'd
really like to know. I haven't used WP since 6.0a, so I'm way out of
that loop. If WP doesn't need a preloader, that's a big plus.
>>OOo 2.0 beta is a HUGE improvement over OOo 1.1.x :-)
>> And seems to cover most of the areas that were a problem for you.
> No it doesn't.
>> Are you looking at making
>> OOo and exact replica of WordPerfect?
>I would like to see OOo come up to WP's level.
... and I would like to see OO.o stay above WP's level! ;-)
I realize that at least some of that is my personal bias because I've
learned to do it that way. It's the old "it's the way we've ALWAYS done
it" syndrome. Look at QWERTY keyboards! By any rational standard, they
should be a quaint relic of early 20th century ingenuity by now, but
nope, here they are still, the far and away leader! :-(
I wonder if there is a way to really stand back and judge some of these
issues in any sort of objective way. Makes me wish I could get more time
to devote to this, and piqued my interest in where WP design has gone
since 6.0a!
--
>Regards,
> Peter Reaper
Best regards to you, for this thought provoking thread and the suggestions.
-Greg Neumann
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