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From: rb@ccird1.UUCP (Rex Ballard)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: Re: a few more option-keys tips
Message-ID: <440@ccird1.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Jun-86 18:11:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: ccird1.440
Posted: Wed Jun  4 18:11:43 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Jun-86 06:31:02 EDT
References: <907@harvard> <99700033@uiucdcs> <132@cbnap.UUCP> <3530@reed.UUCP> <2189@peora.UUCP>
Reply-To: rb@ccird1.UUCP (Rex Ballard)
Organization: CCI Rochester Development, Rochester NY
Lines: 38
Summary: On-line vs. Off-line documentation

In article <2189@peora.UUCP> jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) writes:
>[The referenced article complains that the "shortcut" or "power user"
>keystrokes contradict the Macintosh user interface's goal of ease of
>use without a manual.]
>
>I disagree with this complaint.  While it is somewhat annoying that you
>can't find out the shortcuts without referencing a manual, the goal of the
>user interface should be that the user can use whatever application is
>being run, without having to reference the manual, to the extent that your
>*average* user would want to use it.  Additional "esoteric" or "obscure"
>features, if they are shown to the new user, tend to be confusing.  So
>it makes sense that some features should be essentially hidden until the
>program becomes familiar -- but they definitely should be available.

My main complaint is that many short-cuts aren't documented on-line.
For example, trick like clover-p and such are only documented in the
manual.  I've even heard there's some way to switch the keyboard to
DVORAK.  Unfortunately, such things can't even be found in the online
documentation.  A real simple suggestion here would be to have various
layers of "option menus" or "hint windows", which, even if mousing at
them does nothing, at least lets you know that clover-P (or whatever)
will send postscript out the printer port.

I use shortcuts too, but there are a lot of them I just don't know
about.  Some of the shortcuts are different for different applications.
How many additional bytes would be needed to have system level and application
level "help windows" for each machine?  How about a little "help" selection
on the menu bar.  Mouse to the menu bar, touch the "Option" key and a list
of corresponding letters tells you what you can do with the "Option-letter"
keys.  Do the same for the various permutations of Shift, Option, and Clover.

The beauty of the Mac (or most of the other mice and windows interfaces) is
that the manual can be put on a "back shelf" while you learn the basics
of a new application.  Unfortunately, when you are ready to learn a few
shortcuts, the manual is packed in some unlabled box!

I suppose, if one is really couragous, they could just hit various combinations
of keys and see what happens (are there shortcuts to format the disk :-).