Windows Users Who End Up Here

[MC]

Windows users end up here with monotonous regularity. I'm not sure how
it happens -- apparently there's an ambiguous link somewhere on a MS
site, right? It's annoying for them, and tedious to explain to them why
they're here...

Is there really no way to persuade the operator of the page they're
linking from to make the links clearer?

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Matthew -

It isn't that nobody has been trying to get them to fix it, it's simply that
the fix would require a complete redesign of the MS DISCUSSIONS web site...
Not something that can be done "overnight" even though efforts have begun
but it will be a while yet before the a full transition can occur. Until the
new structure is completed it's just something most of us have learned to
live with. Further, it's managed (I believe) by the Windows side of MS which
probably doesn't share our concern for the relatively small (from their
perspective) number of misdirects which drop people here. I find lost Mac
souls wandering through the Win Office groups as well, although not nearly
as many.

If you'd like a look at the quagmire, this is where the misdirection starts;

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[MC]

If you'd like a look at the quagmire, this is where the misdirection starts;

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/

Ew. Ugly!

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Ew. Ugly!

Somewhere there is a dropdown with hundreds of entries (UI nightmare!),
and the one that just says "Word" is our group. The ones they want are
named things like Word Document Management, Word Page Layout--but the
plain "Word" one comes first.

And yeah, we're putting our effort into getting OfficeforMac.com
improved--we are a loud voice to the people running that site, while no
one at MS-main is going to listen to us when we complain that *a single
one* of the *thousands* of messages posted each day wind up in the wrong
place.

Anyhow, it's not that much of a hassle to redirect them--we're using
shortcuts, not typing that all out every time. If you follow the
link we usually give, it goes to an easier to use site, but one that
only offers Office newsgroups. So getting lost gives them a better
bookmark for the future.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/FlyoutOverview.mspx

Daiya

 

[CyberTaz]

Now you know why we try to cut them some slack - and a few of us play both
sides of the ball anyway. If we can help, we do, then direct them to the
other portal.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Clive Huggan]

On 4/6/08 7:16 AM, in article (e-mail address removed), "Daiya

Anyhow, it's not that much of a hassle to redirect them--we're using
shortcuts, not typing that all out every time.

<snip>

Yes, my benign "you've landed in a foreign land" message is just two
abbreviations for AutoCorrect (in Entourage) for mine.

Which is one of the reasons the regulars use Entourage instead of the web
interface -- e.g. I've used AutoCorrect 7 times in this post.

Cheers,

Clive
======
[And now it's eight]

 

[MC]

On 4/6/08 7:16 AM, in article (e-mail address removed), "Daiya



<snip>

Yes, my benign "you've landed in a foreign land" message is just two
abbreviations for AutoCorrect (in Entourage) for mine.

Which is one of the reasons the regulars use Entourage instead of the web
interface -- e.g. I've used AutoCorrect 7 times in this post.

I use MT Newswatcher & TypeIt4Me to get the same functionality -- I
really don't like the Entourage interface for news reading. MT
Newswatcher isn't pretty but it is quite intuitive. All a matter what
one is used to, probably.

 

[Clive Huggan]

I use MT Newswatcher & TypeIt4Me to get the same functionality -- I
really don't like the Entourage interface for news reading. MT
Newswatcher isn't pretty but it is quite intuitive. All a matter what
one is used to, probably.

Hello Matthew,

Agreed on Entourage interface. I use it for newsreading only because I can
use AutoCorrect, and I use AutoCorrect rather than TypeIt4Me because of
reported problems with Word a few years back. They probably no longer apply,
but I follow an extremely (near-paranoid) conservative strategy that says
"since I *must* keep Word as stable as humanly possible for my professional
work, I will use no haxies". (I have never proselytized this; I just quietly
follow it.) This limits me somewhat, but the result has been total stability
of Word in driving long, complex documents since I moved to OSX (which was
itself late -- Jaguar 10.3, Word 2004). Um, I fib: Word did crash on me
once.

So Entourage is part of "the price I pay"... ;-)

Clive
=====