Opinions wanted..
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We're having some debate in our office about those "disappearing" menu items in MS Office and whether to add something similar to the next major release of an application which is in the early "brainstorming" stages. Menu options where if you don't use them for a while they disappear until you click at the arrow at the bottom of the menu to reveal them after which, if you use them they stay visible until they aren't used again for a while. The debate is this: half say they are a good thing because they get rid of the stuff you don't need so that you can easily find the options faster. (This was referred to at one point as the "typically male point of view" :)) The other half say they are a "pet project of Satan" because you have to expand frequently to find the options you don't use often. How do you think most *typical* users would feel about them?
Hate it.:( The eye has to re-learn what's in a menu each time you show it. Big time waster. Especially when you know that the eye and mind make a snapshot of menu options, and after a while you end up selecting options without even reading. None of this is possible with dynamic menus.
MS quote (http://www.microsoft.com/ddk) : As of September 30, 2002, the Microsoft® Windows® 2000 DDK, the Microsoft Windows 98 DDK, and the Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 DDK will no longer be available for purchase or download on this site.
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We're having some debate in our office about those "disappearing" menu items in MS Office and whether to add something similar to the next major release of an application which is in the early "brainstorming" stages. Menu options where if you don't use them for a while they disappear until you click at the arrow at the bottom of the menu to reveal them after which, if you use them they stay visible until they aren't used again for a while. The debate is this: half say they are a good thing because they get rid of the stuff you don't need so that you can easily find the options faster. (This was referred to at one point as the "typically male point of view" :)) The other half say they are a "pet project of Satan" because you have to expand frequently to find the options you don't use often. How do you think most *typical* users would feel about them?
It would be brilliant, if users could easily choose to have it on or off The following statement about your geekness is true. The previous statement about your geekness is not true. GCS/IT/P d- s: a- C++++$ UL+>++++ P+ L++$ E- W+++$ N !o K+ w++$ O---- M-- PS- PE Y+ PGP--- t !5 X- tv b+++ DI++ D+ G++ e++ h--- r+++
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We're having some debate in our office about those "disappearing" menu items in MS Office and whether to add something similar to the next major release of an application which is in the early "brainstorming" stages. Menu options where if you don't use them for a while they disappear until you click at the arrow at the bottom of the menu to reveal them after which, if you use them they stay visible until they aren't used again for a while. The debate is this: half say they are a good thing because they get rid of the stuff you don't need so that you can easily find the options faster. (This was referred to at one point as the "typically male point of view" :)) The other half say they are a "pet project of Satan" because you have to expand frequently to find the options you don't use often. How do you think most *typical* users would feel about them?
J Cardinal wrote: How do you think most *typical* users would feel about them? I would say most typical users (like my mom, dad, sister, non-techy friends) find them a bit confusing but also see the value in them. Ultimately though I would say customisation is better. I would love to be able to say what options to include in a menu and what not to. I never use the mail merge in Word, but I sometimes use the word count. With the "disappearing" menus I get the worst of both worlds. Both options disappear because I don't use them often, but when I want the word count I have to click the down arrows and then both options appear, just cluttering everything up again. So in short nice concept but they just don't seem to work all that well in the real world.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa -
make that 3. And I got into the habit of clicking on the bottom arrow if I don't find what I want. Michel It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a very long time to say, and to listen to.
- TreeBeardI find it quite usefull so make that 4 :)
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We're having some debate in our office about those "disappearing" menu items in MS Office and whether to add something similar to the next major release of an application which is in the early "brainstorming" stages. Menu options where if you don't use them for a while they disappear until you click at the arrow at the bottom of the menu to reveal them after which, if you use them they stay visible until they aren't used again for a while. The debate is this: half say they are a good thing because they get rid of the stuff you don't need so that you can easily find the options faster. (This was referred to at one point as the "typically male point of view" :)) The other half say they are a "pet project of Satan" because you have to expand frequently to find the options you don't use often. How do you think most *typical* users would feel about them?
To balance the sides a little I'll jump in with "I love it". No really, I do. I also love it in the other Microsoft applications that use them (including Windows 2000). It makes using the software more intuative for you, and with the Microsoft apps like Office the implementation is perfect. My only gripe at the moment is that VS.NET 2003 doesn't seem to allow you to turn this feature on which has been bugging me for a bit now - now whether that is an indication of things to come or a limitation of a beta release I don't know (and I don't think I was allowed to say that anyway). J Cardinal wrote: The other half say they are a "pet project of Satan" because you have to expand frequently to find the options you don't use often If that is truely the case then they cannot be using the software correctly. Do they understand that it will take a while before the software can learn their usuage patterns effectively - no software is physcic (though I wish they's make a spell checker that was!) J Cardinal wrote: How do you think most *typical* users would feel about them? I can't say for the *typical* user of your software, but for Office I would lay my guess down at the *typical* user would have Clippy visible 100% of the time and use that infernal Office Clipboard idea. I doubt they would even realise the menus were tracking their usuage in the first place.
David Wulff http://www.davidwulff.co.uk
I'm not schizophrenic, are we.
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We're having some debate in our office about those "disappearing" menu items in MS Office and whether to add something similar to the next major release of an application which is in the early "brainstorming" stages. Menu options where if you don't use them for a while they disappear until you click at the arrow at the bottom of the menu to reveal them after which, if you use them they stay visible until they aren't used again for a while. The debate is this: half say they are a good thing because they get rid of the stuff you don't need so that you can easily find the options faster. (This was referred to at one point as the "typically male point of view" :)) The other half say they are a "pet project of Satan" because you have to expand frequently to find the options you don't use often. How do you think most *typical* users would feel about them?
It seems most people here don't know how to use the personalised menus corectly and seem to be annoyed at having to click the chevrons! Get with the times people - just double click the menu and the entire thing will show with no commands hidden. Sheesh! :rolleyes: Talk about common sense not being common - I found that out as soon as I started using them (it seems pretty logical to me). :)
David Wulff http://www.davidwulff.co.uk
I'm not schizophrenic, are we.
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We're having some debate in our office about those "disappearing" menu items in MS Office and whether to add something similar to the next major release of an application which is in the early "brainstorming" stages. Menu options where if you don't use them for a while they disappear until you click at the arrow at the bottom of the menu to reveal them after which, if you use them they stay visible until they aren't used again for a while. The debate is this: half say they are a good thing because they get rid of the stuff you don't need so that you can easily find the options faster. (This was referred to at one point as the "typically male point of view" :)) The other half say they are a "pet project of Satan" because you have to expand frequently to find the options you don't use often. How do you think most *typical* users would feel about them?
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I find it quite usefull so make that 4 :)
-1 Good theme for a CP Poll? Pavel Sonork 100.15206
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We're having some debate in our office about those "disappearing" menu items in MS Office and whether to add something similar to the next major release of an application which is in the early "brainstorming" stages. Menu options where if you don't use them for a while they disappear until you click at the arrow at the bottom of the menu to reveal them after which, if you use them they stay visible until they aren't used again for a while. The debate is this: half say they are a good thing because they get rid of the stuff you don't need so that you can easily find the options faster. (This was referred to at one point as the "typically male point of view" :)) The other half say they are a "pet project of Satan" because you have to expand frequently to find the options you don't use often. How do you think most *typical* users would feel about them?
Personnaly I strongly dislike this functionnality, but IMHO any software should propose it and enable to activate/desactivate it, so the user may choose. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children. Antoine de Saint Exupéry (1900-1944)
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I find it quite usefull so make that 4 :)
5. I also like it :) - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
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We're having some debate in our office about those "disappearing" menu items in MS Office and whether to add something similar to the next major release of an application which is in the early "brainstorming" stages. Menu options where if you don't use them for a while they disappear until you click at the arrow at the bottom of the menu to reveal them after which, if you use them they stay visible until they aren't used again for a while. The debate is this: half say they are a good thing because they get rid of the stuff you don't need so that you can easily find the options faster. (This was referred to at one point as the "typically male point of view" :)) The other half say they are a "pet project of Satan" because you have to expand frequently to find the options you don't use often. How do you think most *typical* users would feel about them?
You probably should implement it since clearly MS is going this way and your users will ultimately be familiar with it (whether they like it or not). 2 suggestions: 1. Have an option to turn it off 2. Have an option to control how-long a feature must go unused before it disappears. I think whatever the timelimit MS Word uses is too short.
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We're having some debate in our office about those "disappearing" menu items in MS Office and whether to add something similar to the next major release of an application which is in the early "brainstorming" stages. Menu options where if you don't use them for a while they disappear until you click at the arrow at the bottom of the menu to reveal them after which, if you use them they stay visible until they aren't used again for a while. The debate is this: half say they are a good thing because they get rid of the stuff you don't need so that you can easily find the options faster. (This was referred to at one point as the "typically male point of view" :)) The other half say they are a "pet project of Satan" because you have to expand frequently to find the options you don't use often. How do you think most *typical* users would feel about them?
I don't like them. However they do help if the application has TONs of menu commands. Tim Smith "Programmers are always surrounded by complexity; we can not avoid it... If our basic tool, the language in which we design and code our programs, is also complicated, the language itself becomes part of the problem rather that part of the solution." Hoare - 1980 ACM Turing Award Lecture
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We're having some debate in our office about those "disappearing" menu items in MS Office and whether to add something similar to the next major release of an application which is in the early "brainstorming" stages. Menu options where if you don't use them for a while they disappear until you click at the arrow at the bottom of the menu to reveal them after which, if you use them they stay visible until they aren't used again for a while. The debate is this: half say they are a good thing because they get rid of the stuff you don't need so that you can easily find the options faster. (This was referred to at one point as the "typically male point of view" :)) The other half say they are a "pet project of Satan" because you have to expand frequently to find the options you don't use often. How do you think most *typical* users would feel about them?
Most "typical" users will find it baffling and frightening, causing endless unnecessary calls for support and much confusion. Old malted hops and yeasts never die, they just slowly stupify...