Subject: Re: Normal mode nitpick
From: Randy Kramer (rhkramer@fast.net)
Date: Fri Nov 02 2001 - 07:12:12 CST
Re:
> I think normal mode is for users who use documents on
> screen a lot but don't print them out. It's what
> people were used to for the many years before WYSIWYG
> and it's still better if you don't care about
> printing.
Interesting. I realize I wrote a description of Normal mode without
addressing how columns are handled. (I haven't used columns since tables
came along -- when I want things laid out in columns I almost always
want things in one column to be lined up (vertically) with corresponding
things in the other columns.)
I think if I did use columns, I would like Normal mode to show them as
has been described here in this post (originally by Andrew, IIUC) --
that is the columns arranged one after the other vertically, except that
I would prefer them to be full width, but with some easily visible
indicator that I am typing in an area that will end up in columns. The
narrow width in Word97's Normal view does provide this visual indication
-- we'd have to invent a good alternative if we displayed the column in
full width.
I don't think Normal mode is necessarily for people who don't care about
printing, it's more a mode of text entry that let's you deal with
entering text quickly and clearly -- the styles and other options let
you control the format for printing -- you can switch to Page View or
Print Preview to visualize how it will look when printing.
Normal mode is somewhat the exception to the WSYIWYG approach (although
it does show things like fonts, indents, and similar things correctly)
-- in my typical usage of Word, I do almost all text entry in Normal
mode, and switch to Page View to check (and, if necessary adjust) the
exact layout. I know other people who enter text in Page View, and
then, AFAIK, have no use for Normal.
Hope this helps,
Randy Kramer
Andrew Dunbar wrote:
> > It would not be that hard to do this in abiword but
> > I really don't see the
> > point. If people who just want content don't care
> > about columns they
> > shouldn't put columns in their docs.
>
> I think the MSWord behaviour (one bottomless, skinny
> column) is a bug.
>
> > To me by far the main benefit of "Normal Mode" is to
> > give users more
> > screen space. We should keep as much of WYSIWYG as
> > possible. There are
> > other applications deisgned for non-WYSIWYG, like
> > Lyx. We're a WYSIWYG
> > app. I think we should stick to that.
>
> I think normal mode is for users who use documents on
> screen a lot but don't print them out. It's what
> people were used to for the many years before WYSIWYG
> and it's still better if you don't care about
> printing.
> There are other ways of maximising screen space like
> zooming or hitting the full-screen button.
> It all seems a bit vague to me really but maybe this
> stuff is more important to people who use
> wordprocessors professionally? Personally, I like
> Online mode and Normal mode when using MSWord and
> don't
> like layout mode at all. But I never print.
>
> We should just decide whether to copy the defacto
> standards or do what makes sense to us.
>
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