[libreoffice-design] First Post - members particularly interested in Usability

Hi everybody.

Could those members who are most interested in improving Usability 
please let me know.

My main goal is to have LibreOffice so easy to use and self-intuitive 
that it will gain market dominance. I'm not anti-Microsoft, I just think 
they are totally lost and incapable of knowing what needs to be done. 
The LibreOffice Options dialog box is one example where the selection 
method you offer is much simpler than the Word alternative - there is 
none of that stupid switching of rows when someone hits a folder tab at 
the top so that the owner title of content ends up above the content. 
Having Vertically arranged Folder tabs on the left is another way this 
could be managed.

Some of my specific goals with LibreOffice would involve end-user 
options and include;

1) Removing screen icons where functionality can be tied to events and 
displayed when needed. This allows to screen simplification. I've got an 
excellent example of how this would work.

2) Toolbars with Words instead of icons, or with subservient icons. 
There is much research already published that shows that icons are 
vastly inferior to words. Many developers have jumped in behind MS 
thinking they are following the leaders. These options would obviously 
only work if the tool bars are positioned at the side of the screen.

3) Improving automatic section numbering. I think there are smarter ways 
of achieving this and at the same stage making it simpler. I've used 
word processors for over 20 years and this has always been a major 
source of irritation.

4) Marking Text - provide an alternative method of inserting block start 
and end points. When someone is highlighting a block that extends over 
more than one page, it becomes very frustrating to control this when you 
are holding the mouse pointer at the bottom of the screen as the text 
speeds past. It would be cool to have the ability to move a block of 
text using the arrow keys (up and down).

5) When saving and opening files - allow for a list of favourite 
locations, which are displayed for easy selection. Every time I upgrade 
my computer I use the same folder to copy across and this always 
conflicts with what Windows thinks I want to do. I don't use Documents 
and Settings and still use My Documents from an older version of Windows 
when it was in the Root.

6) When Browsing for files to load, remembering what position the file 
pointer was in a particular folder so that when you drop down to open a 
sub-folder and then return to the same parent folder, you don't get put 
to the top again.

7) When I open at TXT file in Calc I don't want to see it open in 
Writer. I know what I am doing and don't want the system to make that 
decision for me.

8) Have a bigger list of most recently opened files - user set maybe.

9) Show full path name of recently opened files - my suggestion is to 
have the file name in the first column and the path further to the 
right. Could possibly have a sorting option by path or file name.

10) Pasting Pictures so that they don't jump around unexpectedly when 
you have many pictures on a page and you move one.

These are the main goals and I think that there is scope for looking at 
a lot of other things also but they can wait. The above goals would in 
my believe make a vast difference to users, and not just myself.

Cheers

Phil Jackson


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