On Thu, 2006-03-09 at 02:56 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Personally, I never understood why you had to VIEW (and not INSERT) to > insert a header or footer in MSO. OpenOffice seems better organized. > To a person with a passing familiarity with Office it may be confusing > at first.
You've highlighted the difficulty with user interface design. To the developer, the header/footer is always there as part of the page. It just may not be visible. Hence, you can say that you VIEW headers and footers. To the user, they are inserting it. The art/skill of the interface designer is to make what the user sees consistent with what the user understands about the tool. The job of the documentation writer is, IMO, to make sure everyone has the same [correct] understanding of the tool. If the above is true, then it tends to support the argument that users need to be educated as well as trained. > Some people never think to look thru the toolbars. They do not see > what they need, they do not consult help, they do not look at the > website for a guide - They write the forum and ask. And I see the same > questions asked over and over. But you guys are patient and kind. I > still do not understand if you can find the product to download, how > you can miss the downloadable guides. How, if you can find the forum, > you can missing the system requirments page. It's always good to adopt the attitude that assumes that there *is* a way to do it, "until I'm convinced that there isn't". The by-product of that attitude is that you are, at the same time as you are looking, automatically building an understanding of the tool that will make it easier to use the tool next time. You do much more than simply remember the thing you first started looking for once you've found it. This is called "serendipity". It's what children and small fluffy animals are doing when they play. We've all done it and we all continue to do it. But when it comes to technology, this all disappears for many people due to fear of the unknown. That's the other job of education and training - demystification and removing the fear factor. It's also another job of the interface designer, to make complex things look simple and familiar, and even look like fun! Hence the tendency of commodity software user interfaces to resemble more and more children's play centres. Animated paper clips and the like. > The one comment I remember from a forum (paraphrased) was you are > either a free-thinker or you are not. You either are willing to try > out new things or you are rigid and only rely on doing the same thing > over and over. If you are willing to try out new things, you will find > that OpenOffice is comparible on most tasks with MSOffice. If you are > a well trained monkey, stick with Microsoft, learning something new > may not be for you. I know of some managers that classify their employees as having a "procedure oriented" personality or not. They then assign tasks accordingly. I've known some employees who have been told by their managers that they have a "procedure oriented" personality type, and they accept it and fall into place. They probably have very different priorities and interests and are happy to accept that. I've argued with them about it, but they insist that's what they are. Maybe they're right after all. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
