Re: [PLUG] questions on an office-wide conversion

[Michael Leone <turgon@mike-leone.com>]

On Sun, 2001-12-16 at 18:13, Jason Costomiris wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 16, 2001 at 12:55:47AM -0500, Michael Leone wrote:
> : > appearing..  How is that not like a typewriter?
> : 
> : Hilight something; make it bold, in a different font, in a different
> : language, that blinks. 
> : Insert a sound clip/movie clip from the Internet, and play it.
> : Make it mail-merge.
> : Make a live hyperlink in the document.
> : Insert an embedded Excel spreadsheet, that automatically updates the
> : document whenever the spreadsheet changes.
> : Have an automatic footer inserted, that says "Page 1 of 10". And
> : increments the total # of pages, on every page, as you add/delete pages .
> 
> All stuff you DO NOT HAVE TO DO in order to use a word processor.  

As my post said. You do not HAVE TO DO, but you could. And all are
things you can't do with a typewriter and paper. That was the above was
refuting - the concept of Word (or any word processing program) being
"just a typewriter".

> 90% of
> all people who use a word processor will use Microsoft Word.  They will
> be content with 1.25" side margins and 1" top/bottom margins.  They won't
> care that their text is in 12 point Times New Roman.  They won't care if
> their text blinks, is in a different color or contains movies, sounds or
> any other such nonsense.  They don't understand the concept of a mail 
> merge, let alone want to do one.  You say "database table" to them, they
> wonder how many legs that kind of table has.

And yet they almost all invariably need to use specialized templates -
like a memo format as opposed to just a blank sheet; use company
letterhead templates, make a budget proposal with multi-level bulleting,
etc. Which means that they have to be able to figure out how to make a
template ... after first figuring out what a template is. I know - I
have to tell the users these concepts. Not all; some are pretty good.
Some are not.

> : You weren't really serious, were you?
> 
> 100%.  You just keep missing the point.  We're not talking about users
> performing more advanced operations like embedding objects, or even
> non-compulsory tasks, such as changing fonts, making text bold, etc. 
> We're talking about users who consider it "hard" to start up Word, type
> someting, save and print.  Heck, it's easier than a typewriter - no need
> for whiteout!

I'm not missing the point, Jason. I just don't agree with you. 

I have had more than one user who doesn't even get the concept of saving
to directories. Ask them where they saved their file, so you can open it
and look at it, they say "I don't know; I always just open it by
clicking on the name at the bottom of the FILE menu". People like this
for sure need a training session. I wouldn't call saving a file to a
specific location, or opening a file from a non-default save area, an
advanced function, would you?

I have other users who need to be told that they can start a program by
clicking on "START, PROGRAMS", and choosing it off a list. I've been
told "Word isn't installed; there's no icon for it" on the desktop. 

Tell them to minimize a window; they click on the "x" and close it.

It's when they do it 3, 4 times AFTER being told otherwise that makes
you nuts.-)

I'll grant you, most people don't need a whole training class, much less
a series of them. But a non-trivial percentage of the population DO.
Enough so that a whole lotta people make their living doing beginner
training in applications.

-- 

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Michael J. Leone                  Registered Linux user #201348 
<mailto:turgon@mike-leone.com>    ICQ: 50453890     AIM: MikeLeone

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