Tag: usability

Mac OS X: forcing an application to use a specific language

I ran into the following problem: I switched the keyboard layout of my Mac running OS X 10.9 to use a different keyboard layout (French instead of Dutch). The result was that a number of applications also changed their interface language to French instead of English (!). Which is very annoying.

Removing the French keyboard layout did not solve the issue just like that. For some applications, deleting the preference file solved the issue, but for some it didn’t.

I finally resolved the issue by downloading App Language Chooser from the Mac App Store. This developer tool allows you to “hard code” the language of a specific application. Just drag the application icon into the application window, and specify the language of your choice.

Keyboard shortcuts for Tabs in IE

This morning, I was looking for the keyboard shortcut that allows you to switch between different tabs in Internet Explorer. Like ALT+TAB allows you to switch between open windows, CTRL+TAB allows you to switch between open tabs. But there are even more interesting shortcuts I did not know about, like ALT+ENTER. Little things that can save you quite some time. See the list below, taken from the IE Help:

To Press
Open links in a new tab in the background Ctrl while clicking the link
Open links in a new tab in the foreground Ctrl+Shift while clicking the link
Open a new tab in the foreground Ctrl+T or double-click an empty space on the tab row
Open a copy of the current tab in a new tab Ctrl+K
Switch between tabs Ctrl+Tab to move forward or Ctrl+Shift+Tab to move backward
Close the current tab (or the current window when there are no open tabs) Ctrl+W or Alt+F4
Open a new tab in the foreground from the Address bar Alt+Enter
Switch to a specific tab number Ctrl+n (where n is a number between 1 and 8 )
Switch to the last tab Ctrl+9
Close all tabs except for the one you’re viewing Ctrl+Alt+F4
Open Quick Tabs (thumbnail view) Ctrl+Q

The ribbon in SharePoint 2010

As you have probably heard, SharePoint 2010 has a total new interface on the user side: it has the ribbon as we know it from Office 2007.

There are a couple of reasons why this can probably become an issue and will require extra training for your end users:

  • a lot of companies are still running Office 2003, and will probably hold on upgrading until Office 2010 is available. These people have never seen the ribbon before!
  • the ribbon is “security trimmed”, but where in MOSS 2007 any option that you did not have access to was hidden, it is grayed out in SP 2010. This gives some very strange results if you only have read access: you get a ribbon full of disabled buttons.
  • Some functions are less accessible than befor, e.g. the content types. It requires some extra clicks to get where you want.

ribbon

Definitely something to consider when you start planning your end user training!

User adoption has not changed since the Middle Ages

A lot of IT projects fail because users struggle with the change that the new tools bring them. As an IT implementer or trainer, it is good to “unlearn” everything you know about the software, and view it from a user perspective.

The video below shows that what is simple, is not always obvious!