Um, your people are idiots? Seriously though, I'd probably give a couple of solutions. Color code the non-available documents differently. Change the link from a popup word doc to a named anchor at the bottom of your page containig a section describing how to get unlinked forms.
On 4/24/06, Dawson, Michael <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On our intranet site, I am creating a couple pages for departments to > place commonly-used forms (in .DOC and .PDF format) for users to > download. > > Some of the forms we use are multi-part forms that cannot be downloaded, > obviously. However, the departments still want these forms listed on > the page with the other downloadable forms. > > But, wait. They *do* want these forms to be clickable. Whenever a user > clicks the link for one of the multi-part forms, the dept wants me to > display a basic Word doc that says "Sorry, this form is not available > for download. Please order the form at...." > > To me, that is totally ridiculous. So, my alternative was to put a > small comment, below each non-downloadable form, that says, "The form, > listed above, is not available online. Please order the form at..." > > My justification is that the user can immediately see the comment and > have no need to click further. > > If I turn this into a clickable link, that opens a Word doc, I'm sure > the users will be pissed that they had to go to the trouble of clicking > the link, saving the file (or just opening it) and then opening Word > only to find they have been hornswaggled. My opinion is why put the > user through the extra steps? > > Then, the dept has another alternative. They want me to use a "title" > attribute so that when the user hovers over a link, the tooltip will say > "This form is not available online...." > > I don't care for that solution because nothing will inform the user to > hover long enough for the tooltip to appear. > > What are your thoughts on this? > > M!chael A Dawson > Manager of Web Applications > Office of Technology Services > University of Evansville > 1800 Lincoln Avenue > Evansville, IN 47722 > 812-488-2581 > MSN Messenger ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > "There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary > numbers and those who don't." > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:205285 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
