Re: Word toolbars
- From: Paul Berkowitz <berkowit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2006 12:33:46 -0700
On 6/8/06 12:01 PM, in article 080620062001337545%nospam@xxxxxxxxx, "Elliott
Roper" <nospam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
1. Could somebody please explain why the command to go to the next
comment called GotoNextComment is in the editing category, and the
command to go to the next tracked change is called
ToolsRevisionMarksNext and is in the Tools category and why the other
command called NextChangeOrComment is in the the Tools category, miles
away from its kissing cousin in the almost un-navigable, completely
unstretchable 2 cm high commands box?
Many (most) of the commands begin with the name of the menu in which they
are found, BUT: it's generally the name of the menu (and then sometimes
submenu) as found in Word Windows, which sometimes has no correspondence
with where they are on the Mac, (Hence the profusion of ToolsOptions
commands. There's no such menu item on the Mac, but there is in Word
Windows. On the Mac those are usually in Word/Preferences, but not always.)
Lots of the menus and menu items have changed over the course of time and
versions on both Windows and the Mac. (Even on the Mac, references are now
in Word menu, whereas they used to be in Edit menu, for example.) Arguably,
the Command names have been a lot more consistent over time than the menu
items they represent. You wouldn't really want the command names changing
every time the menu items change location, would you? It shows the
liabilities of naming commands after their menu locations, which - when they
don't move - are a convenient way to find them.
One wonders what will happen to these now that the next version of Word
Windows is doing away with menus altogether... Probably they'll keep their
names, where they still exist, but I don't know.
Can anybody see any rhyme or reason for the Quixotic naming and
categorising conventions, other than a wish to keep users at arms
length, dazed and confused?
Oh, come on, Elliott. Any time there are hidden controls - which is what
customizations, keyboard shortcuts, and the like are - it becomes in effect
a simplistic "programming language". There are always going to be arbitrary
things there. I thinks it's because they tried to keep it too simple -
naming commands after UI menu locations and squishing multiple words
together in Microsoft "Hungarian" programming style - without realizing how
much the UI might change over time, versions, and platforms, that we landed
in this minefield. If they had chosen a more reliable method to start with
it would have been by definition more arbitrary, with little or no relation
to what the command did or where it could be found, and people would have
complained that it was "too difficult".
--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>
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.
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