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Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

businessinsider.com

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Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#211

Post by teekert »

shoo wrote: post #162
teekert wrote: post #99

In all their wisdom Asus put the power button next to the delete button on my BX410 [0]. Too bad I can't pop that button. Setting it to do nothing is the first thing I do after installing Linux (which I do regularly). [0] https://dlcdnimgs.asus.com/websites/global/products/APfLG1Rk...

i remember a similar issue for desktop computers from ~15 years ago, and a keyboard with a helpful shutdown button. i think it was located a bit to the right of F12. from memory windows just started shutting down and there wasn't a way to interrupt it. pretty funny. not something you'd hit often, but possible to hammer accidentally if playing a full screen game that used a bunch of F1-F12 keys. after hitting this a f…

Yes but I don't use Windows on said machine :)

Edit: oops meant @netsharc

Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#212

Post by dmitriid »

woodrowbarlow wrote: post #108
dmitriid wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This should really be solved in software And this software is called "Excel". This should really be solved in software called "Excel". As in: remove functionality from F1

the problem cited in the article is performance. a "help" dialog shouldn't take several seconds to open, it shouldn't take foreground control, and you shouldn't have to wait for it to finish opening in order to close it. and you definitely shouldn't have to move your hand to the mouse to close something that was opened by an accidental keystroke. if the view doesn't get obstructed and you could simply tap F1 a second…

No.. The problem cited in the article is: a common operation that is invoked hundreds of times a day is bound to F2. An uncommon operation that breaks the user's flow is bound to F1. Users keep hitting F1 by accident.

The only proper and decent UX in this case is to remove the source of the error. You do that by removing the binding of F1

Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#213

Post by IshKebab »

CarVac wrote: post #154
IshKebab wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember Visual C++ 6 where F1 would instantly go to and offline reference to the current symbol, similar to Qt Creator now. It was great. Of course now it searches done Windows live forum or something and is 100% useless.

I can't believe that I've used Qt Creator for three years and never knew that.

You can also add cppreference in as a help module: http://en.cppreference.com/w/Cppreference:Archives#Qt_help_b...

Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#215

Post by copperx »

cocoablazing wrote: post #174
sp332 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Office has a zillion features buried in various menus and panels. The help feature has been pretty reliable when I need to find something that I know is in there.

OSX makes these interfaces somewhat usable by providing a keyboard-driven filter for all menu items. Microsoft should copy this feature.

It has, at least in Office. There's a "how to..." search box which accomplishes the same thing (and better, I would say).

Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#216

Post by woodrowbarlow »

dmitriid wrote: post #212
woodrowbarlow wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the problem cited in the article is performance. a "help" dialog shouldn't take several seconds to open, it shouldn't take foreground control, and you shouldn't have to wait for it to finish opening in order to close it. and you definitely shouldn't have to move your hand to the mouse to close something that was opened by an accidental keystroke. if the view doesn't get obstructed and you could simply tap F1 a second…

No.. The problem cited in the article is: a common operation that is invoked hundreds of times a day is bound to F2. An uncommon operation that breaks the user's flow is bound to F1. Users keep hitting F1 by accident. The only proper and decent UX in this case is to remove the source of the error . You do that by removing the binding of F1

> that breaks the user's flow

this is the problem. and it breaks the user's flow because it obscures the work area and can't be instantly dismissed.

there's nothing wrong with putting relatively uncommon actions next to common actions on the keyboard as long as the actions don't break the user's flow.

Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#217

Post by RankingMember »

jsjohnst wrote: post #96
RankingMember wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What country are you operating out of? I've never heard of cleaning people doing this in offices in the US.

Every Silicon Valley, NYC, and Denver office I’ve worked in had cleaning crews who dusted desks / keyboards at least weekly, if not more often. Source: I’ve been in the office working when they came through.

Weird, guess they don't care about us developers in the mid-atlantic region.

Re: Some Excel users pop F1 off their keyboards (2012)

#218

Post by dmitriid »

woodrowbarlow wrote: post #216
dmitriid wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No.. The problem cited in the article is: a common operation that is invoked hundreds of times a day is bound to F2. An uncommon operation that breaks the user's flow is bound to F1. Users keep hitting F1 by accident. The only proper and decent UX in this case is to remove the source of the error . You do that by removing the binding of F1

> that breaks the user's flow this is the problem. and it breaks the user's flow because it obscures the work area and can't be instantly dismissed. there's nothing wrong with putting relatively uncommon actions next to common actions on the keyboard as long as the actions don't break the user's flow.

> as long as the actions don't break the user's flow.

This. Yet you propose to keep the action that breaks the user flow even if it's often triggered by mistake ;)

I propose to remove the action that breaks the user flow.

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