On Sat, 21 Dec 2002, Jon Eaves wrote: > The one thing that really interests me about the usability aspects > of the "new Word" is : > > Do users have to see the XML (as what it sound like in your description) > or can they just use it like they always have <press B> type bold text > <press B> type normal text ?
No, they don't have to see the XML. The example they were showing was being driven with tags off. Templates were used to drive the 'tags off' editing. The menus could be mapped to an XML element (and I am assuming element/attribute combination). However, the good news is that you can turn the 'tags on'. For those of us who used to love the "View Codes" functionality of WordPerfect this is great news. Microsoft Word is difficult to see what is happening under the covers when formatting goes awry. If you have done conversion of Word, it is amazing the number of blank formatting constructs that get included in an edited file because a user hits [B] or [I] by mistake and they don't realize that Word has actually put the construct in the file. > > I'm worried from your description that it sounds like it was like > using a custom XML editor. > For real XML applications you want it to be customizable to provide functionality for your end user and provide valid well-formed XML. You will still be able to use Word as Word but if you are building an XML application you want to have control of the structure. This is one of my concerns is that it may not provide as much control that may be required for stringent applications. > > > > 3. It is possible to create invalid XML - this is the biggest > > problem that I can see. A user can put text anywhere, even > > outside a tag. > > This one in particular. > > > > > For XML authoring, I would still prefer a native XML editor because it > > is easier for the end-user. However, for organizations that have > > Microsoft upgrade licensing agreements it will be a hard sell. > > And this. > > Having never seen Office 11 (or the movie Oceans Eleven for that matter) > I am only guessing, but if you are using it in "document creating Word > mode" and choose "save as XML" do you get > > a) Microsoft proprietary schema generated XML > b) The ability to "save as XML using this schema" > or > c) None of the above. If you save it as a .doc then you get a Word document. If you save it as XML the default is your XML with Microsoft proprietary formatting information also embedded. I didn't see what this really looked like but it is probably ugly. Another option is to save it without the formatting information and it saves it only maintaining the users XML according to a valid schema. > > Mostly because the customers I deal with have "content creators" that > will use Word and send it to a "content editor/aggregator" who will > edit the content and put it into a CMS. Trying to re-train the "content > creators" is not a likely scenario but if they can use Word like they > always have and send the Word doc to the "content editor" who can > "save as XML" then maybe this will really have legs. Especially > if the "save as XML" can generate the content in a custom format. > What you are doing is probably what Office 11 will do best. Typically you build Word Templates for your users. With XML you will build a template based on the XML Schema. If the template is robust enough the original content creator will not know they are creating valid XML. I have a feeling the templates may be slightly to significantly more difficult to create than Word templates but the benefits will be significant. Overall I was really encouraged by what I saw. Excel has also become XML aware but I didn't see it. Powerpoint does not include XML yet. There was some talk about possibly providing SVG in Visio which would be really cool too. Betty /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Betty Harvey | Phone: 410-787-9200 FAX: 9830 Electronic Commerce Connection, Inc. | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Washington,DC SGML/XML Users Grp URL: http://www.eccnet.com | http://www.eccnet.com/xmlug/ /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/ -- http://cms-list.org/ trim your replies for good karma.
