ken green wrote:
How about something that simply states:
"By checking these boxes, OOo will open these files when double-clicked.
If you plan on continuing to use MS Office to open these file types,
consider leaving the checkboxes alone. OOo will still work fine leaving
these checkboxes unchecked - it is not required."
- OR -
Might also consider another setup box that is triggered when one or more
MS Office file association boxes are checked. That way, a new box would
come up, explaining what is about to happen (file assoc) and allow the
user to confirm that choice or go back and uncheck boxes.
I think the core of the problem (i.e. freaked out naive users) is
attributable to the manner in which Windows assigns icons to file types.
I'm NOT a naive user; I've been computing for about 25 years now. I've
sat through hundreds of program and OS installs. I'm currently running a
dual-boot box with XP and FC4. But I'll admit that the first time I
installed OOo on XP and then saw the familiar Word, Excel, and
Powerpoint icons replaced with a flock of seagulls I had a WTF!? moment.
I didn't freak out and start flinging accusations. Instead I calmly
reset the Explorer view to List mode (which is where I prefer it anyway)
and verified the file extensions. Then I took a few minutes to figure
out what happened and why.
Honestly, for all those years I had never really thought about how
Windows assigns those icons. I had always just tacitly assumed that they
were assigned based on file extensions. Well, they are, but not
directly. Rather an app is associated with the extension and the icons
are assigned from the app.
Trust me on this... it's the icon change that freaks people out. They
don't know beans about file associations nor are they interested. In
fact my wife, who is a very intelligent woman -- measured IQ around 140
-- and a gifted artist, nonetheless considers the innards of computers
to be something of a black art. She is constantly asking me if I saved
something IN OpenOffice or IN Microsoft Word as if the program itself is
a container for documents in some way. I try to explain to her that the
question doesn't really make sense and why but she just gets annoyed at me.
We really need to look at new users as falling into one of four
categories based on two separate criteria. They either do or do not
already have MSO installed on their machines, and they either do or do
not have the tech savvy to understand the file association question and
the ramifications thereof.
If the user DOES have MSO installed then they are likely trying out OOo
either out of curiosity or they don't want to pay for an upgrade to MSO
or whatever. I would wager that the vast majority of those people do NOT
want the association change. At least not yet, not on the first
installation. I want to try the thing out first. The technically
literate will see the question, understand it, and think "That's
strange. I've never seen that before.", leave the boxes unchecked and
move on. The technically naive will NOT understand, may or may not check
the boxes -- depending on their particular mis-apprehension, and then
may or may not end up writing the list all freaked out.
If the user DOES NOT have MSO installed then the question is either a)
pointless -- because they have NO MSO files either, or b) pointless,
because they need something to read MSO files and there's no reason to
leave the boxes unchecked, or c) they're using something like
Wordperfect which brings us back to the previous paragraph. The savvy
will understand and the unsavvy won't -- with unpredictable results.
When I installed OOo for the first time in January '04, I thought the
question meant "Do want OOo to BE ABLE TO open MSO files?" So I thought,
"Yes. Install the appropriate filters, please." I really did NOT expect
the file associations to change. I didn't freak out, but I wasn't real
happy about it either.
The install code should be changed to only create the associations if
none currently exist in the registry. The piece of code that changes
current associations should be re-used by making a "File Association
Wizard" accessible from the Tools menu perhaps.
I love the program, but the installation process has for a number of
reasons -- most of them fixed in the 1.9--2.0 branch -- been the weakest
and most confusing part of using OOo. And that's unfortunate precisely
because the installation process is literally the very first impression
that people get of OOo. If that's horked up it taints the whole experience.
Rod
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