Strom
2005-11-16 03:18:10 UTC
OS: Microsoft Windows XP SP2.
Software: Microsoft Word XP with no updates.
So I was running a spell/grammar check on a report I was doing in
Microsoft Word XP and got a vague description from the grammar UI. The
grammatical error I received from the UI was this: "Verb Confusion".
Ironically, this is neither a helpful message to receive from the UI,
nor is it a grammatically correct sentence (but I diverge...).
Anyways, I clicked on the "Explain" button on the UI for the first time
in my life, and CLIP appears out of my text document. The examples it
gave to me about this problem were semi-helpful, but I'm pretty sure I
know how to use verbs (I guess Word doesn't like "hovering").
After reading the message, I decided to close Clip. But alas, there was
no sign of a close button, nor a minimize button, nor a "hide clip
forever" button. So I did what any self-respecting UI analyst/designer
would do: I flipped out :P . I bailed out of spell check immediately
by clicking "Cancel" because of my fear and loathing of that stupid
animated character. Well, clip vanished, but I'm still a little bitter
that I couldn't have the satisfaction of closing Clip myself.
The moral of this story is, give better error messages, or don't give
any at all. If I had a clear explanation of why my sentence was wrong,
I wouldn't have had to click Explain (e.g. the grammar UI could have had
this error: "This verb seems to refer to such-and-such noun, which
doesn't make any sense. Are you sure you weren't referring to blah
instead?")
Another moral is, never NEVER gratuitously use something just because
you think it's cool. I could have just as easily gotten the same
information in a separate pop-up window instead of a yellow speech
bubble from an office supply freak of nature. I didn't need to freak
out and cancel my spell/grammar check. I curse the twisted engineer who
decided to leave Clip in for a cameo (to give you some bearing on how I
felt, imagine Jack Nicholson in the Shining when he axes through the
door and shouts "Here's Johnny"). Oh well, I'm pretty sure the rest is
right anyways...
Strom
Software: Microsoft Word XP with no updates.
So I was running a spell/grammar check on a report I was doing in
Microsoft Word XP and got a vague description from the grammar UI. The
grammatical error I received from the UI was this: "Verb Confusion".
Ironically, this is neither a helpful message to receive from the UI,
nor is it a grammatically correct sentence (but I diverge...).
Anyways, I clicked on the "Explain" button on the UI for the first time
in my life, and CLIP appears out of my text document. The examples it
gave to me about this problem were semi-helpful, but I'm pretty sure I
know how to use verbs (I guess Word doesn't like "hovering").
After reading the message, I decided to close Clip. But alas, there was
no sign of a close button, nor a minimize button, nor a "hide clip
forever" button. So I did what any self-respecting UI analyst/designer
would do: I flipped out :P . I bailed out of spell check immediately
by clicking "Cancel" because of my fear and loathing of that stupid
animated character. Well, clip vanished, but I'm still a little bitter
that I couldn't have the satisfaction of closing Clip myself.
The moral of this story is, give better error messages, or don't give
any at all. If I had a clear explanation of why my sentence was wrong,
I wouldn't have had to click Explain (e.g. the grammar UI could have had
this error: "This verb seems to refer to such-and-such noun, which
doesn't make any sense. Are you sure you weren't referring to blah
instead?")
Another moral is, never NEVER gratuitously use something just because
you think it's cool. I could have just as easily gotten the same
information in a separate pop-up window instead of a yellow speech
bubble from an office supply freak of nature. I didn't need to freak
out and cancel my spell/grammar check. I curse the twisted engineer who
decided to leave Clip in for a cameo (to give you some bearing on how I
felt, imagine Jack Nicholson in the Shining when he axes through the
door and shouts "Here's Johnny"). Oh well, I'm pretty sure the rest is
right anyways...
Strom