Firstly, sorry this is not in the old thread, but I only get the digest,
so.....
Thank you to everyone for responding to my original post. I would just
like to comment on the diversion of the original topic of general
over-automation in the MS mold to the autocomplete feature (which goes
all the way back to pre-OpenOffice versions of StarOffice). I
occasionally use autocomplete, but usually avoid it so that my fingers
will actually still be able to type out complete words when using
programs that require full typing of all inputted words. I'm found that
it's sometimes a good idea to look away from the screen when typing, and
then there are no problems. Occasionally, when in a rush and with long
oddball words, I've found the feature useful. It's an automation that
is easy to ignore, so I don't actually have a problem with it.
Regarding automation - someone commented that as long as it can be
turned off, then there is no problem. I'll go along with that, but with
the caveat that I think it might be nice if attention could be focused
on two aspects to auto/manual operation.
1) As it stands, canceling most of the automatic functions requires a
bit of poking around. I wonder if it could simplified by having an
"Automation" button to click on in the toolbar or in one of the menus.
Leaving everything as it is, it could duplicate the on/off options that
are elsewhere to avoid confusion (and - admittedly - create some new
confusion!), but if all the on/off options relating to automation were
in one place, then people who want to use OpenOffice in (mainly) manual
mode could go to that one place and turn off the automation easily, and
then back on easily if they change their minds later on.
2) Generally things are set to be fully automatic as the default, but I
wonder if some of that could be dialed back a little. Presumably, the
automation is there by default with the expectation that those who don't
want the automation are more likely to be skillful at tinkering with the
settings. That may be true, but, going back to number one, if all the
automation settings were in one place, then it would be easier for
everyone to make adjustments.
Well... actually, I'm tempted to delete number two... maybe starting in
full automatic is the right way, but number one I really would like to
see. It wasn't until I found out how to get rid of custom quotes and
some other character related automation that the program was useful to
me (due to incompatibility with some Japanese word processors). Now I
know how to turn those features off, it's easy enough, but even just for
getting rid of custom quotes, there are two separate tabs that have the
settings. It would be great if all (or at least most) of the automation
could be shut down on one page.....
Lyle H Saxon
Ref. 1 (Original post):
As a way to open files sent to me in MS-Word format and also when
suggesting the program to people who want something as close to what
they're used to as possible, I think the newest version of OpenOffice is
on track, but.... for my own uses, I'm finding the pre-2.0 version to be
much too close to MS-Word for comfort. There are good and bad aspects
to MS-Word, but the over-automation of it is what hurts productivity the
most. For someone doing something that fits within the standard mold,
it can be faster, but for those of us who customize our operations from
job to job, the automation becomes a beast to defeat and adds a lot of
extra time and frustration in pulling the machine back away from
directions that the user never wanted it to go.
So... for now,I'm abandoning Pre-2.0 and going back to 1.1.4, which
still has the handy tool bar along the left side and isn't as
maddeningly automated.
Lyle H Saxon
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