M Henri Day wrote:
2010/2/5 Pierre <openoff...@finalfiler.com>
versions of Windows products. MS Office 2007 is installed on all of them, as
is OOo, but I only use the latter (save when I'm helping people with
difficulties in using the former over the telephone). As many computers are
purchased with MS Office installed, but presumably all instances of OOo have
been installed by users, it might just possibly be the case that, on the
contrary, the proportion of OOo installations that actually are used is
higher than that for MS Office. None of us know, of course, but in any
event, the method employed in this study does provide a reliable way of
measuring whatever it is it measures, and will therefore be useful for
detecting trends. Let us hope that in the fullness of time, the other users
in your office come around and increase the proportion of OOo users !...
Henri,
I get so frustrated by not being able put up a persuasive argument to
persuade our staff to change to FLOSS or OSS.
[CARE- RANT FOLLOWS]
However, I learnt a lesson last week when two new desktops were
installed in our office. We do a fair bit of minor photo editing,
usually no more than lifting a section of photo image of its background
and pasting it onto a different background. We may also do some basic
photo enhancing. The file is then saved as a tiff and emailed to a
manufacturer for some processing.
We'd been using Paintshop Pro to do this.
I persuaded the two workers who do this to try "The Gimp".
Within minutes there was a snag and near mutiny. It wasn't so much the
Gimp itself that was the problem; it was the fact that there was no
context sensitive help to guide users on how to cut the section of
image. It took me the best part of twenty minutes to track down the
relevant documentation. By that time my colleagues had thrown their
hands up in despair and insisted Paintshop Pro be installed.
More to the point, if it took me some considerable time to identify how
to perform a fairly common and basic task in the Gimp, what chance the user.
I have to conclude that therein is FLOSS's main handicap; the lack of
meaningful help files & system.
Arguably OOo is better served in this area, but it has failings as well.
For example. After years of using OOo, to this day I cannot get outline
numbering to work. The instructions in the help system just do not work
for me. So, whenever I need to use outline and paragraph numbering I'm
back in MS-Word. It is just so much easier and more intuitive. Click
Outline View and there it is and it works. OOo just doesn't do that in
my experience.
[END OF RANT] and thanks for listening. I feel much better now. :D
--
Pierre
Worrigee, NSW,
,-._|\
/ Oz \
\_,--._/
v
"The boys dressed themselves, hid their accoutrements, and went off
grieving that there were no outlaws any more, and wondering what modern
civilization could claim to have done to compensate for their loss. They
said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than
President of the United States forever." Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom
Sawyer
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