I think you are both off the question I asked by several earth orbits.SF>> > So, what you are saying is that if you ask 10 people, you are sure to SF>> > find someone who regularilyembeds office OLE in other documents, somone SF>> > (possibly else) who regularily embeds his own OLE inside office, SF>> SF>> I have used OLE to put Excel spreadsheets into Word, etc. Many other SF>> people do so too without realizing that. So does my father.
I did that too, even recently. Though I wasn't entirely satisifed by the performance of this combo (has too many glitches and it doesn't really embeds it as I wanted it to be).
SF>> I've used VBA for Excel and my father's job used what I wrote SF>> and someone else there also did other things like that.
Did that once too, though I used VBA for word. Oh, used VBA for excel too, I remember (not that I'm happy to remember that)...
SF>> > to send the same letter to hundreds of recipients, and someone who SF>> > creates his own templates? SF>> SF>> I did not create my own templates, but it could be useful.
I did create a few of templates when I was windows programmer and had to
write Windows documents a lot. Actually, templates and styles are very
useful and powerful things. Though most random word users hardly ever use
them - even not because they don't need, but because they don't know and
don't want to. They prefer to type 10 spaces than to learn what these
rulers at the top do, they prefer to set up each heading font manually
than learn how styles work, etc.
The question is not whether the readers of this list used those features. The question is whether 20 RANDOMLY SELECTED Word users (office, really) used them. I'll also point you to the fact that most of those features are not very obscure. I can make the test harder by adding even *less* obscured features (and more needed). Such as "how many use styles", "how many know how to switch paragraph direction", and "how many know how to write a phone number, such as 03-6925814 inside a Hebrew paragraph so it doesn't come out 6925814-03". All of these are supposed to be the common, everyday tasks that are the ABC of using a Bilingual word processor, and yet you will find that of 20 RANDOMLY CHOSEN Word users, 18-19 won't know how to do it, and will produce documents that look bad because of that.
Now, the fact that Shlomi Fish or Stanislav Malyshev are the masters of the written Word (tm), does not mean that the average user is right in paying 700$ for features they will never in their life use.
Now, the list I gave was biased because of a very simple reason - I wrote it from Word features I know. Here's another list for you. This list was generated by using D&D dice for randomly picking menu items in Word. I sometimes use the face value, and re roll the dice if it's too high, and sometimes use the face value devided by 2 (esp. when there are 3 options), rounding up. I always decide which it's going to be before rolling the dice.
D6 to select the menu (most options are in the "Insert", "Format" and "Tools" menus)
The other dice to pick sub options:
Feature 1 - D6=2 (/2 = Insert), D20=12 (Picture), D6=2 ("From File...") - How many people ever used "Insert picture from File"? (yes, I know, it's a pretty standard feature, but that's what the dice showed).
Feature 2 - D6=3 (/2 = Format), D20=19 (too big - only 15 options. Reroll), D20=13 (AutoFormat), Dialog pops up saying "Word will automatically format the selection in Document1", with two options. Anybody even know what that means?
Feature 3 - D6=4 (/2 = Format), D20=15 (Insert Text Box) - How many people ever used that? (I did in Powerpoint, but when I tried to do Technion Homeworks with this option, I lived to regret it).
Feature 4 - D6=6 (/2 = Tools), D20=18 (too big - only 16 options, Reroll), D20=9 (Online Collaboration), D6=1 (/2 - Meet Now), a Netmeeting setup dialog pops up. Anyone knows what that is?
Feature 5 - D6=3 (/2 = Format), D20=12 (Frames), D6=6 (/3 - New Frames Page) - Clicking makes the left and right borders go away, and I get a bar allowing me several options. Anyone can guess what that is? Never mind that, anyone can guess how I return to normal editing?
Feature 6 - D6=2 (/2 = Insert), D20=16 (Bookmark), dialog pops up asking for bookmark name. Anyone wants to wager a guess whether that changes the document (i.e. - puts in an anchored bookmark), or just remebers a position (editing help)?
Ok, so we have a truely random (not evenly distributed, but still random) of features. My question is not whether you know what they mean. My question is whether you can imagine ever clicking on the above mentioned menus in order to ever use them. Extra points if you also did so in the past. Also, please remember - this is an advanced crowed.
Why doesn't it matter if you know what they do? Because if you didn't know they were there, they are worthless. Even if you needed them, you wouldn't have used them, because you didn't know Word offered them, or because you did, but couldn't find them. I also suggest you ask your mother/brother/neighbour etc. about the same list, see what they come up with.
Shachar
P.S. At least I still find use for old D&D dice!
-- Shachar Shemesh Open Source integration consultant Home page & resume - http://www.shemesh.biz/
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