G. Roderick Singleton wrote:
On Mon, 2006-02-27 at 09:34 -0600, Rod Engelsman wrote:
G. Roderick Singleton wrote:
[snipped]
I'll agree with you that once you understand how it works, it's fairly
easy to deal with. I just don't think that a style is where folks tend
to look for that property.
I think you have hit the point. Our users have _NOT_ grasped that OOo is
different and expect MSO behaviour without bothering to check the
differences. I do know that the people on both the doc project and
OOoAuthors try to compensate for that but there is a limit especially
when these are not even read by those needing the information.
As I said before, you can only idiot proof stuff so far before you
whatever you produce is so big it is useless. Nonetheless we try to
consider all levels of expertise especially with styles.
Hmmm... I think the phrase "idiot proof" in the context of this
particular issue is a bit condescending. It doesn't seem *logical* to me
to expect a Language setting to be associated with a Style. Styles are
about formatting and appearance. Language is an orthogonal concept,
perhaps more closely aligned with content than format.
I think the problem is that the present setup is unintuitive enough that
a lot of people never even think to ask the question that could be
answered in the docs or help.
With answering on users, I have been taking the approach that OPs only
need some direction so they learn a bit rather than the spoon feeding
approach. Others do what they do and the mix is that the list is a good
resource. So the question is how to improve communication with our user
base so that we are not repeating ourselves over and over? I have no
answer. Do you?
I've been hanging out here for a couple of years and there have always
been questions that generate a lot of traffic. But they're not
necessarily the same questions anymore. For example, installing on WinXP
used to be a real train-wreck; every step of the process was unusual
from the experience of an average user of Windows. Hell, I'm pretty
smart about computers but it screwed me up the first time. Now that
we've moved to native installers the process is pretty normal and we see
a lot less traffic on that subject.
There's only so much you can do on the Support and Documentation end of
things. Sometimes the product just needs to be improved and the User's
list is a good source of information in that respect.
So my answer would be: There is no answer. OOo is a great product but
it's certainly not perfect. And some things are just screwy enough that
until they get changed they are going to generate a lot of repetitive
questions.
--
Rod
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