It's time to throw away an old and outdated computer fable: that people need to be trained in the use of software. It's costing large and small offices far too much loss of productivity.
Equally damaging, it's keeping computer users alienated from the machines that should be their friends.Back in the dark days, relatively few programs deserved to be called "user friendly." It was common necessity to teach computer users how to work computers, operating systems and application programs.
Those days are long gone. Good software is largely self-explanatory. Motivated computer users can teach themselves to use it. Anybody who needs classes today to learn how to operate 1-2-3, Excel, or Quattro Pro shouldn't be using a spreadsheet.
Here's our rule for today: Anyone who never did that work Before Computer should never do it After Computer either. That's true of everything from accounting to page layout. Workers familiar with what they're doing need just two things for fast, cost-free learning: motivation and good software.
If lots of seminars are still being offered in how to learn a particular program, it's not good software. Good software generally has all or most of the following: 1. A short basic manual with a good index. 2. A user-chooser interface. 3. Online, context-sensitive help. 4. A higher than rock-bottom price.
Why a short basic manual? So users can start working with and learning the program within 20 minutes. If there are a lot of advanced features, they should be covered in a separate manual (in the same binder or separately bound; it doesn't matter).
Any software with a poor manual is poor software. We've seen some programs with okay manuals, but no index. By a half hour into learning a program, most people need to know how to quit. Since that detail is usually buried in the text, the only way to find it is with a good index.
Other words that we use to test an index are "save, print, default," and "error messages." A user-chooser interface is a screen that can look and be used in any of several ways. Good games let you turn the sound on or off. Many interfaces now permit users to choose screen colors, select automatic file saving and specify American (the period) or European (the comma) decimal punctuation.
To find out if a program has user-chooser options, check the index for defaults or "default settings." Microsoft Word has many. For instance, beginners can select to keep Word's menus onscreen at all times. Once accustomed to Word, they can turn off the menus. It frees up three extra onscreen lines for viewing the manuscript.
Other user options in Word include choice of measure (inches, centimeters and printer's points), cursor speed, and drive and subdirectory in which the spelling dictionary is kept.
The spreadsheet Excel's user-chooser interface lets you set it to respond to commands you already know. If you're an ex 1-2-3 user, you can make it jump to attention when you hit the slash key. Most Borland programs, such as Quattro Pro and Sprint, can ape the look and command structure of popular spreadsheets and word processing programs.
These days, it's a mighty poor program that doesn't incorporate online, context sensitive help. `Online,' here, means `instantly available onscreen at the touch of one key or key combination.' That key or combo is usually designated the official `help key' for the program. Whenever you hit it, the screen displays a helpful message.
"Context sensitive' means that the message you get refers specifically to the part of the program you're working with, instead of being the same message no matter what you're doing. Some programs have hundreds of different messages. Best of all are the ones that know your last keystrokes, know why they're not working here, and tell you what to do instead.
ACCPAC BPI's general journal help feature beeps if you enter two credits instead of a credit and a balancing debit. A message flashes onscreen telling what you did wrong. It suggests how to correct it. That kind of help can only be written by programmers who take into account how people will use the program they're writing. It's the mark of a very good program.
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