R
Roger Knights
Wish List #2: Improvements In Go To
5. There should be a second, By-Location, option for viewing Bookmarks
in the GoTo dialog box (i.e., in order by location within the
document), the way there is in the Insert Bookmark dialog box.
Currently the only view is by alphabetical order.
In order to force names to appear in by-location order, I have to
assign them names in alphabetical order by location, which requires
inserting artificial prefixes. It's a poor workaround. The
manufactured names have awkward, unintuitive, unmemorable prefixes. And
I have to allow empty slots for insertions, another annoyance.
In addition, whenever the user changes the order of blocks of his text,
which is a fairly common occurrence, the bookmark-prefixes associated
with the blocks that have been moved will no longer sort the bookmarks
into sequence for its new location, so he must change them. (And this
is a real pain because there is no Rename functionality, so the
bookmarks have to be deleted and then created again.)
Since Word already has access to this location-based information (and
uses it in Insert Bookmark), why not make use of it here too? It would
also create more consistency for the two views to be available in both
places. Consistency makes the user feel more comfortable, because
idiosyncrasies worry him.
Here's an analogy: Windows provides the user with a choice in the way
the icons are arranged when viewing the contents of a directory: by
Name or by Type. It would be silly to say that the user could
manufacture prefixes for the names of the contents of a directory so
that they'd appear in a by-Type order, and that therefore a "by
Type" view is uncalled for. It IS called for; and so is a "by
location" view.
6. In the Go To dialog box, once Bookmark is clicked in the left-hand
pane, the Bookmark drop-down menu on the right should open
automatically, because the user usually has more than one bookmark.
E.g., if he has ten bookmarks, the likelihood that the one he wants
appearing as the item showing in the un-opened bookmark list is only
10%.
I think I understand why this automatic opening wasn't done: the
other options like Caption and so forth in the left-hand menu have a
sentence of guidance-text beneath the drop-down menu on the right. So
it may have been decided that since clicking those left-hand menu items
does not open the right-hand menu, it would be consistent for none of
them to do so.
But that's wrong-headed, because in those cases the user wouldn't
be puzzled or misled or irritated by inconsistent behavior. He
wouldn't even notice it. Rather, he'd appreciate it that he was
given a little guidance-text where appropriate, even though it required
him to make an extra click to open the right-hand pane. But in a case
where no guidance-sentence is needed, i.e., for Bookmarks, no
extra-click-delay should be imposed, because it buys the user nothing.
7. Clicking on a bookmark in the right-hand pane of GoTo should
immediately take me to it. I shouldn't have to click Go as well.
8. I shouldn't have to click "Close" once Go To takes me
somewhere. 90% of the time the panel is no longer wanted (IMO). I
realize that there are persons who would prefer the box to stay open,
but I think they are vastly outnumbered by persons who do not want to
box to do so. If they are in the minority, they should be the ones who
make the extra click, to serve the greatest good of the greatest
number.
The preferences of both groups could however be accommodated if the
GoTo dialog box contained a check box labeled "Erase this box after
execution"-or words to that effect. I've encountered a dialog box
containing such a check box somewhere in Windows. The user's choice
would be the default in the future, until unchecked.
There are probably other dialog boxes that could be enhanced with such
a check box, to allow users to tailor box-retention/erasure to their
preferences.
9. Previously used Go To page numbers, and the page numbers of
bookmarks recently clicked on, and the page numbers where text has been
recently inserted or deleted, should appear in the GoTo dialog box.
That way the user could go to them simply by clicking on them. It's
useful to be able "toggle" among recent locations in a document.
There is free real estate at the right spot in the box, and page
numbers wouldn't take much space.
What I've proposed is akin to the Alt-Tab navigation method (in
Windows), but within a document. The Alt-Tab navigation method would be
severely crippled if had only the capabilities of the Shift+F5 feature.
Shift+F5 is not nearly equivalent in usefulness to what I've
proposed, because:
1. It stores only three past locations, which is not enough to be
helpful in many situations.
2. It doesn't keep track of page numbers, but only insertion points.
IOW, if I Go To page 32 from page 89, delete three words (or select and
shift text, etc.), pressing Shift+F5 would not take me back to page 89,
but merely jitterbug me around in page 32.
3. It lacks the ability to go directly to the page that is wanted,
bypassing intermediate pages. Instead, it back-tracks through every
intermediate location and displays it on the screen, which is
time-consuming and distracting.
5. There should be a second, By-Location, option for viewing Bookmarks
in the GoTo dialog box (i.e., in order by location within the
document), the way there is in the Insert Bookmark dialog box.
Currently the only view is by alphabetical order.
In order to force names to appear in by-location order, I have to
assign them names in alphabetical order by location, which requires
inserting artificial prefixes. It's a poor workaround. The
manufactured names have awkward, unintuitive, unmemorable prefixes. And
I have to allow empty slots for insertions, another annoyance.
In addition, whenever the user changes the order of blocks of his text,
which is a fairly common occurrence, the bookmark-prefixes associated
with the blocks that have been moved will no longer sort the bookmarks
into sequence for its new location, so he must change them. (And this
is a real pain because there is no Rename functionality, so the
bookmarks have to be deleted and then created again.)
Since Word already has access to this location-based information (and
uses it in Insert Bookmark), why not make use of it here too? It would
also create more consistency for the two views to be available in both
places. Consistency makes the user feel more comfortable, because
idiosyncrasies worry him.
Here's an analogy: Windows provides the user with a choice in the way
the icons are arranged when viewing the contents of a directory: by
Name or by Type. It would be silly to say that the user could
manufacture prefixes for the names of the contents of a directory so
that they'd appear in a by-Type order, and that therefore a "by
Type" view is uncalled for. It IS called for; and so is a "by
location" view.
6. In the Go To dialog box, once Bookmark is clicked in the left-hand
pane, the Bookmark drop-down menu on the right should open
automatically, because the user usually has more than one bookmark.
E.g., if he has ten bookmarks, the likelihood that the one he wants
appearing as the item showing in the un-opened bookmark list is only
10%.
I think I understand why this automatic opening wasn't done: the
other options like Caption and so forth in the left-hand menu have a
sentence of guidance-text beneath the drop-down menu on the right. So
it may have been decided that since clicking those left-hand menu items
does not open the right-hand menu, it would be consistent for none of
them to do so.
But that's wrong-headed, because in those cases the user wouldn't
be puzzled or misled or irritated by inconsistent behavior. He
wouldn't even notice it. Rather, he'd appreciate it that he was
given a little guidance-text where appropriate, even though it required
him to make an extra click to open the right-hand pane. But in a case
where no guidance-sentence is needed, i.e., for Bookmarks, no
extra-click-delay should be imposed, because it buys the user nothing.
7. Clicking on a bookmark in the right-hand pane of GoTo should
immediately take me to it. I shouldn't have to click Go as well.
8. I shouldn't have to click "Close" once Go To takes me
somewhere. 90% of the time the panel is no longer wanted (IMO). I
realize that there are persons who would prefer the box to stay open,
but I think they are vastly outnumbered by persons who do not want to
box to do so. If they are in the minority, they should be the ones who
make the extra click, to serve the greatest good of the greatest
number.
The preferences of both groups could however be accommodated if the
GoTo dialog box contained a check box labeled "Erase this box after
execution"-or words to that effect. I've encountered a dialog box
containing such a check box somewhere in Windows. The user's choice
would be the default in the future, until unchecked.
There are probably other dialog boxes that could be enhanced with such
a check box, to allow users to tailor box-retention/erasure to their
preferences.
9. Previously used Go To page numbers, and the page numbers of
bookmarks recently clicked on, and the page numbers where text has been
recently inserted or deleted, should appear in the GoTo dialog box.
That way the user could go to them simply by clicking on them. It's
useful to be able "toggle" among recent locations in a document.
There is free real estate at the right spot in the box, and page
numbers wouldn't take much space.
What I've proposed is akin to the Alt-Tab navigation method (in
Windows), but within a document. The Alt-Tab navigation method would be
severely crippled if had only the capabilities of the Shift+F5 feature.
Shift+F5 is not nearly equivalent in usefulness to what I've
proposed, because:
1. It stores only three past locations, which is not enough to be
helpful in many situations.
2. It doesn't keep track of page numbers, but only insertion points.
IOW, if I Go To page 32 from page 89, delete three words (or select and
shift text, etc.), pressing Shift+F5 would not take me back to page 89,
but merely jitterbug me around in page 32.
3. It lacks the ability to go directly to the page that is wanted,
bypassing intermediate pages. Instead, it back-tracks through every
intermediate location and displays it on the screen, which is
time-consuming and distracting.
