[plug] JD stresses at OOo (was: AbiWord)

[Cameron Patrick]

James Devenish wrote:
 
|  - The 'Open' dialogue takes me somewhere other than the current working
|    directory or my home directory (this might be acceptable, but it's
|    not like any other apps I use).

It takes me to the last directory I opened something in.  That sounds
sensible.  It wouldn't surprise me if the very first time I used it, it
had a lousy default though.

|    Also, it doesn't let me navigate to
|    directories via text entry. This is normal for some operating
|    systems, but a pretty obvious omission under Linux.

Have you tried typing in a directory name in the text field?  It works
for me.

|  - To 'import' or 'place' data into a spreadsheet

The OOo spreadsheet is pretty sucky.  The chart component is worse.

|  - the word-processor toolabar Font menu would be laughable if it
|    weren't so sad -- it only shows six fonts at a time.

It shows me all the fonts installed on my system - rather more than six,
in my case.

|    It turns out they are identified as 'Options', under the 'Tools' menu
|    -- /Tools/? Really?

I believe that this interface decision was copied from Microsoft Word.

|    And the 'Character' window is not resizable

A reasonable complaint, but seems pretty minor.

|  - I'm using v1.1.0 and it tends to crash on pre-existing documents that
|    I open. I suppose they might be dodgy (imported from other
|    programmes) so it's forgivable, but merely doesn't reflect well.

I haven't noticed this.

|  - Charting. AAARGH! Absolutely drives me crazy in OOo. Won't list the
|    usability problems I'm having.

(See my above comment about the spreadsheet.)

|  - Printing: doesn't follow the motifs I expect. For example, there is a
|    "Printer Settings..." option /below/ the "Print" option. My
|    expectation is that there would be a "Page Setup..." option /above/
|    the "Print" option. Tried Printer Settings. Talks about "Scale: 1%".
|    Could probably find info in the help, but there was no help button
|    immediately available.

Try Format->Page.  IMHO this is a saner place for it than the file menu
anyway.  "Printer settings" is for low-level stuff.

Cameron.