Subject: Re: Open & Close
From: NW (neilwin@cableinet.co.uk)
Date: Sat Aug 25 2001 - 06:04:55 CDT
I have had my say before, but I assume that eventually the Abisuite will
be for the use of all types of users. In that case the majority, I
suggest, will be like my daughter, a user who does not consider herself
in any way a computer expert. So I asked for her opinion.
My daughter is a legal secretary working in a busy solicitors' office.
Typically she will have to type anything from 30 to 40 letters in one
session. Because her computer is part of a network and also because it
is generally more efficient they have all been trained to deal
completely with one letter at a time and then to tidy it away before
moving on to the next one. So the routine is as follows:
Open a blank document, type in the letter, save it, print it, put the
printed version in the 'Waiting for signature' file, and finally close
the document.
Now move on to letter number two.....
When the last letter has been closed, exit from the WP program.
I asked her what she would think of a WP program which returned her to
the desktop every time she closed her document before starting on the
next one. The look on her face said it all. 'Stupid' was her kindest
comment.
I then explained that she could get around it by opening a new blank
document each time before closing the old one. Again the look of her
face said it all. It was obviously time to send for the men in the white
coats!!
I have said this before, but it is important enough to repeat,
If Abiword is to be used and accepted by as many people as possible,
including ordinary users, then the way that 'Close' works now will not
do. It is not the way that people work and it is not how they expect a
WP program to behave.
By all means leave things as they are, but doing so will lose a lot of
potential users. People generally are no longer willing to change their
way of working to suit a computer program, they expect the program to
follow their way.
Neil Winchurst
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