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On Hiatus

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Due
to the holidays here in the United States and elsewhere, many people are taking time
off of work, away from their computers, and away from blogs.

I am no exception, and my blog will be on hiatus for two weeks.  If you're
new to the blog and looking for reading material in the meantime, I recommend
starting with this list of
thirty
top articles about the Office 12 user interface.

I'll be back with brand new episodes starting Tuesday, January 3, 2006.

Have a safe and happy holiday season, and I'll see you again in the new year!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2005
    Happy holidays, and thanks for the excellent content you've provided this year. Looking forward to the next!
  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2005
    Have you ever had a chance to use OpenOffice.org suit? If not then give it a try.

    It is 1 feature that I think should be ported to Word. I posted the request for this feature during beta of Office 2003 and 1 microsoftie responded that it would radically slow down word. But this feature has the possibility to radically alter the word processing industry.

    This feature is auto type. Basically, OOo stores every word that you type (greator than 5 characters). So, whenever you begin to type it again, it will show it on tooltip and you just press enter to complete it. You have to try OOo to really understand its benefits. This just seems like a natural feature that any Word Processor should have.
  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2005
    Have a great holiday, Thanks for an amazing insight into the history & future of the Office UI
  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2005
    >>>It is 1 feature that I think should be ported to Word.

    >>>But this feature has the possibility to radically alter the word processing industry.

    >>>This feature is auto type. Basically, OOo stores every word that you type (greator than 5 characters). So, whenever you begin to type it again, it will show it on tooltip and you just press enter to complete it.

    Similar to predictive text in mobile phones or MS smart tags?

    Google Suggest is a similar concept that I've struggled with:
    http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

    It may help beginner or occasional typists, but I'm not in favour of auto type.

    If it was implemented, I would switch it off in my preferences.

    I type too fast to be pressing enter repeatedly to get words accepted or be checking my work to ensure that what I had typed had been accepted word for word by the software. It would be more of a hindrance than a help for me.

    Happy holidays, Jensen!
  • Anonymous
    December 18, 2005
    "It is 1 feature that I think should be ported to Word. I posted the request for this feature during beta of Office 2003 and 1 microsoftie responded that it would radically slow down word. But this feature has the possibility to radically alter the word processing industry. "

    Yeah alter it for the worse. I can type faster than I can pick something out of a disjoint list of possible "predictive" options.
  • Anonymous
    December 19, 2005
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    December 19, 2005
    Thanks for the detailed reply Chris. Yes you are right that it can be annoying for some people and situation that you mentioned in the above post does happen. But everybody is not a fast typer as you and the situation that you mentioned is not frequent. Besides, I am sure you are aware of lot of features in Office that aren't useful to you but useful to others.

    However, I will insist that you do try OpenOffice . It is free and it wouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes to downlaod/install and try it. You will realize how useful this feature could be for lets say a gradma who has hard time typing (this makes up large population of computer users).

    I am a college student and my papers usually include lot of words greator than 5 letters. Autotype feature saves me ridicuouls amount of time retyping words.

    By "microsoftie", I meant one of the official developer from Microsoft. Nothing deragatory imnplied here.
  • Anonymous
    December 19, 2005
    Merry Christmas! I just saw this link to your blog on technet and thought I'd drop a word in to say HI!
  • Anonymous
    December 19, 2005
    My school works based on "ribbons" (new MS Office 12 UI).
    I want to see softwares like "Photoshop" and "3D Studio Max" based on this UI!

    http://spaces.msn.com/members/mentas/Blog/cns!1pzHYt881pdx5NESSN5k7QFA!238.entry
  • Anonymous
    December 20, 2005
    "I am a college student and my papers usually include lot of words greator than 5 letters. Autotype feature saves me ridicuouls amount of time retyping words. "

    OK, it works for you. But consider that when you break it down you're proposing four sets of people:

    a) those who frequently use words > 5 characters.
    b) but who cannot type very well for some reason.
    c) and yet who are not scared by random things popping up on the screen while they're trying to concentrate on their typing.
    d) spend a fair amount of time working in a word processor rather than an Email app or an IM chat window.

    I of course am not a UI guru, but I suspect (and have done some observation to confirm this) that the junction between those four sets is quite small.
  • Anonymous
    December 20, 2005
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    December 21, 2005
    A bit off topic, but does anyone else find that if an article has a lot of comments then they become corrupted?
  • Anonymous
    December 22, 2005
    Max: Using what operating system, service pack level, and web browser version?
  • Anonymous
    December 22, 2005
    John:
    You're welcome, nice to know it was read (I wonder sometimes :-) I had hoped to mess with it next week while I'm off, but the gf seems to have plans for me - maybe I'll still have time. My MSDN subscription has run out I really should do something :-) Best wishes in your studies.

    ''blogs'': I have this prob with some areas of this blog. IE 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2.050301-1526

    Max: I can clear it up in my browser with View | Text Size | Medium
    (and yes, picking what it is already set at works)

    Merry Christmas everyone!

    -Chris C.

     - Feel free to wish me back a seasons greetins as Chanukah, Quanza, etc. (Christmas is my sentiment, whatever yours is, yours is :-)

    PS
    I have a friend who types with his two index fingers and is faster than I am.
  • Anonymous
    December 22, 2005
    I have also noticed that the comments become corrupted.

    I am using IE6 SP2 on Windows XP Professional.

    The way I get around this issue is to keep refreshing the page. For about a half-second, nothing is corrupted, but then it suddenly becomes corrupted. I then press the Refresh button, and so on and so forth until either the page remains "uncorrupted" or I am done reading the comments. It is rather annoying.

  • Anonymous
    December 22, 2005
    Regarding corruption of comments. My system specs are as follows:

    OS is W2K SP4
    Browser IE6 SP1 (6.0.2899.1106C0)
    Q867801,Q823353,Q833989,Q903235

    If you need more info then let me know.
  • Anonymous
    December 22, 2005
    Update: I too can clear the problem by reselecting the text size. Thanks for the tip.

    Happy holidays to all ...
  • Anonymous
    February 10, 2006
    < My dad included, who uses his left hand + index finger on right hand to type, even though he has been a programmer for last 17 years>

    MS IDEs have had intellisense for 10 years, I used it back then but no so much now. I agree with the multiple words with the same beginning mess me up as I have to keep looking at the list to see if / which word I want to pick. This gets even more problematic when you start memorizing your abrreviation list and then suddenly you add a new library (or expand your vocabulary) and all of a sudden the first 3 letters don't resolve to the same word it did yesterday.

    Steve
  • Anonymous
    June 16, 2009
    PingBack from http://workfromhomecareer.info/story.php?id=30925