Keith Bates wrote:
On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:35:44 -0800
"Robert Stapleton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
O.K. Got it. Apparently I am not the only one who does not know the
meaning of "to associate MS Office files with OpenOffice". I had no
idea this selection would "take over my files", as one user
remarked.
It's been a while since I did a Windows install of OOo but I'm pretty
sure that it does describe what will happen if you tick those boxes...
but I could be wrong on that.
It reads like this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
File Type
Select the file types that are to be opened with OpenOffice.org 2.0
OpenOffice.org 2.0 will automatically open the following file types:
[] Microsoft Word Documents
[] Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets
[] Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
But really, the boxes are unselected by default to try to remove this
apparently never-ending problem. You actually have to decide to click
on each of those boxes. Why on earth do so many people actually go
through this process, read the instructions, take an active decision
to tick the boxes and then complain that the software did something
unexpected?
I'm primarily a Linux user, and have been using OOo for a long time, but
I think that people are reading "are to be opened" to mean "are able to
be opened." They then interpret "automatically" to mean that if they
don't check the boxes the MS filetypes will be difficult to open
("manual").
If you don't understand what is going to happen if you tick the boxes
then don't tick the boxes!
Maybe the solution is to have big flashing red screens that say
"DANGER!!! You have chosen that when you click on doc files they
will open with Open Office. Are you sure?" Then if you click "Yes",
another one that says "Are you really really sure". And another one
that says "One last chance now. Choose carefully"
Probably a bit over the top. ;-)
But there's no doubt that the language in this DB is still confusing
people and needs to be changed (again) to be made clear.
Irv
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