Comments on: Hey this makes it Bold like in Word http://manwithnoblog.com/2007/05/12/hey-this-makes-it-bold-like-in-word/ Gary Barber rants on user experience, information architecture and the web industry. Sun, 27 Jul 2008 01:40:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: john Allsopp http://manwithnoblog.com/2007/05/12/hey-this-makes-it-bold-like-in-word/#comment-1273 john Allsopp Sat, 12 May 2007 23:34:50 +0000 http://manwithnoblog.com/2007/05/12/hey-this-makes-it-bold-like-in-word/#comment-1273 It gets more interesting - HTML5 is now the official basis for the next version of HTML. I am sure there'll be a lot more discussion about this in the coming months. john It gets more interesting - HTML5 is now the official basis for the next version of HTML.

I am sure there’ll be a lot more discussion about this in the coming months.

john

]]> By: Andrew Tetlaw http://manwithnoblog.com/2007/05/12/hey-this-makes-it-bold-like-in-word/#comment-1269 Andrew Tetlaw Sat, 12 May 2007 21:42:35 +0000 http://manwithnoblog.com/2007/05/12/hey-this-makes-it-bold-like-in-word/#comment-1269 I think that the question of what tools do, what they output and how they are meant to be used is a central one to all this. If you look at Word for an example, I see 2 main styles of usage - the highlight text and click the bold button crowd and the crowd that use Word Styles properly. Word Style are almost Object Oriented in nature, separating visual style from the content, allowing for content reuse like automatic TOC generation and so on. Used properly Styles can make your life much easier. Reworking a document created using Styles is a breeze, reworking a doc made by selecting text and choosing font properties ad hoc is a real pain. In my experience people who use Styles are few and far between. Word does not dictate how you make a document, and if printed both ways look the same. But there's the problem - they both look the same from one mode of use - but try anything else and the Styles based doc is very flexible and the adhoc one is not. When redoing a word doc that does not use styles, you basically have to start from scratch. Why doesn't Word force users to use the better Styles based approach? I don't know but I guess it's because they want to sell more copies of Word and alienating a segment of users might cause problems in that area. Some people just don't care about how the doc is made they just want to print it. In the office I promote the use of Style in Word as much as possible, sometimes people get it. So what the hell am I trying to day? I dunno! I can see the reasons why this debate goes on and on, I can see responsibility lies with web professionals and tool makers to promote the better way of doing things, alienating people who don't want to change is not generally a good thing. ...it just keeps going around in my brain with no clear conclusion :) I think that the question of what tools do, what they output and how they are meant to be used is a central one to all this.

If you look at Word for an example, I see 2 main styles of usage - the highlight text and click the bold button crowd and the crowd that use Word Styles properly.

Word Style are almost Object Oriented in nature, separating visual style from the content, allowing for content reuse like automatic TOC generation and so on. Used properly Styles can make your life much easier.

Reworking a document created using Styles is a breeze, reworking a doc made by selecting text and choosing font properties ad hoc is a real pain.

In my experience people who use Styles are few and far between. Word does not dictate how you make a document, and if printed both ways look the same.

But there’s the problem - they both look the same from one mode of use - but try anything else and the Styles based doc is very flexible and the adhoc one is not. When redoing a word doc that does not use styles, you basically have to start from scratch.

Why doesn’t Word force users to use the better Styles based approach? I don’t know but I guess it’s because they want to sell more copies of Word and alienating a segment of users might cause problems in that area.

Some people just don’t care about how the doc is made they just want to print it.

In the office I promote the use of Style in Word as much as possible, sometimes people get it.

So what the hell am I trying to day? I dunno! I can see the reasons why this debate goes on and on, I can see responsibility lies with web professionals and tool makers to promote the better way of doing things, alienating people who don’t want to change is not generally a good thing.

…it just keeps going around in my brain with no clear conclusion :)

]]>