Re: [tdf-discuss] Re: Do not support writing to OOXML format

On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 11:51, Ian Lynch <ianrlynch@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 31 December 2010 10:37, Kevin André <hyperquantum@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 11:07, Gordon Burgess-Parker <gbplinux@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > 1. It is arrogant to return a document in a format different to that
> > which
> > > was sent to you. (That's why email clients always reply in the same
> > format
> > > in which the original message was received)
> >
> > I agree. And users will wonder why they can open a document they
> > received, make some simple changes, but are asked for different name
> > when saving the file. They will say "why can't this program simply
> > save my changes?".
>
>
> You can get away with being arrogant when you have 80% of the market.

Right. But LibreOffice doesn't have that kind of market share...

>  Most
> of the people using a WP have no idea about file formats, they will assume
> if it comes in as xxxx it needs to go out as xxxx. (Actually a lot will
> never even have used save as..) If there is no facility to do this there is
> a reasonable chance they will reject the use of the software out of hand.

Indeed. I argued that forcing users to save an OOXML document in
another format is something that users will not understand at first,
and they probably won't like it either.
As for the save as, with the read-only OOXML policy they will see a
dialog appear that they only expect to see when saving a brand new
document (that has no filename yet) or when explicitly doing "save
as".

> This isn't about logic to a sophisticated computer user, it is about the
> average user who has no technical knowledge and has picked up a WP by trial
> and error.

And that is why I think it's a bad idea to have the application do
something they do not expect.

> MS by luck or judgement have been very good at exploiting
> ignorance. School systems don't teach word processing, they teach MS Word.
> It's why we need better education and a certification programme for users
> that covers stuff like file formats and the principles of WP not just one
> product.

Better education for users would be the optimal solution, but it's not
something you can force to happen. And it will not 'fix' all those
people that already got their 'education' in the past.

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