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From: "JohnnieMiller" on 13 Apr 2010 21:07
i'm using OpenOffice.Org version 3.2.0, build 9483

i have a suggestion for you. Throughout the entire OpenOffice.Org
program, in all the apps - writer, calc, base, etc.. and in all the
supporting stuff..the help files, the preferences thingy, everywhere.
Everywhere there are these horriffic drop down boxes that remember what
you last typed in that particular drop down box. In the find and
replace boxes there are these monsterous drop down boxes that remember
all the things you typed in the box before. So, lets say you've been
using some field that has this vicious feature where it remembers
everything you typed in the, and then it COMBINES that crazymaking drop
down box with all you've typed before with a narly little creeping thing
that when you type the first letter of something that is in the drop
down box then whatever was the rest of that entry in that drop down box
magically appears and clutters up your field with the wrong data if
you're trying to enter something new. and this is where the screaming
insanity maker begins. Often in these fields you type things that are
very similar but different. but when you're busy typing and you put in
the correct thing in these whirling dirveshes of swirling insanity what
happens is these drop down boxes plus the auto fill feature always,
ALWAYS conspire to screw it up. You don't realize that what you typed
got ignored cause it was similar to something already in the drop down
box and your first few letters caused the auto feature to pop up some
junk that you typed two hours ago and is totally irrelevant now but
because that bit of data that auto fills happens to be longer than what
you really need and what you type you don't notice that it leaves
garbage there on the end and you hit enter and its your migrane begins
to tingle in the back of your mind. you type what you want again and
again the autofill overrules you in this partial way that screws it all
up. then you stop and give all your attention away from the very very
important document you're working on that must be in court tomorrow and
it already nearly midnight and now you have to stop and focus on this
itty bitty box that keeps filling up with wrong data you typed earlier
and you make sure, you make SURE you type it right, and low and behold
it changes before your eyes cause some characters those boxes down like
and it just goes haywire. after a half hour of trying to stop this
nonsense and you hunt all through the help documentation and the
preferences and everything for the OFF button. WHERE IN THE WORLD CAN
YOU SET A GLOBAL PREFERENECE TO STOP REMEMBERING EVERYTHING IN EVERY
LITTLE DATA FIELD AND TURNING IT INTO A DROP DOWN LIST OF NEARLY USELESS
INFORMATION IN EVERY SINGLE FIELD, USELESS INFO FROM HOURS AGO OR IT WAS
WRONG A SECOND A GO AND NOW THE LITTLE MONSTER BOX HAS ANOTHER THING IT
PLAYS YOU WITH. THE LISTS GET LONGER FULL OF BAD DATA THAT PILE UP FROM
YOU JUST TRYING TO GET PAST THAT AUTO FILL DEMON FROM YOU KNOW WHERE.

I've looked at those boxes and i realized that they are sort of nice
when you don't get into that insanity with them for the occassional time
it would be nice not to have to retype those six characteres again
(though that savings become moot when you get into one of the
aformentioned fights with the auto fill drop down leearing weasels). I
looked at what happens to me and there is so little time savings that
they are not worth it at all to me. I doubt that in the real world,
with all their problems and autofill madness they actually save any time
at all. I say to you that even though it may fly in the face of what a
programmer would think a user would want, i think these drop down auto
fill grizzlies actually take up MORE time to faniggle over and over and
over and over and over on every single thing everywhere. what i would
suggest is that you take two actions, one, make a global option THAT IS
EASY TO FIND AND NOT BURIED IN THAT VAST PREFERENCES THING THAT GOES ON
FOREVER AND DESCRIBES EACH PREFERENCE SETTING IN THE MOST OBTUSE AND
NONSENSICAL MANNER POSSIBLE and clearly describes what the setting is
for, or this might be a per moduale setting. two, re-idea the auto fill
concept. re-imagine it. re-invent it. what makes autofill work is
that when it saves that half second of data entry time its nice, but the
fundamental flaw of auto fill as your program presents the concept is
that when you only need to enter a short amount of data but that short
bit of data is equall to a longer bit of data lurking in the bowels of
yesterdays work that you already forgot but is just there waiting to
bite you in that drop down auto fill box, the auto fill doesn't know
you're done typing and it fills in the longer bad data you don't want
this time. then you hit enter without noticing or you try and get that
jigger of a drunken bit of longer wrong data out of that box and it just
seems to stick in there like the crud in the corner of a pan you can't
seem to get cleaned out. you try to delete it with the delete key and
that data just laughs at you, you try to type over it and the data just
comes back faster, eventually you are screaming at the computer and
clawing at the screen foaming at the mouth trying in desperation to get
that bad data out of the auto fill. but to no avail. you just have to
stop and give up and hope that when you come in tomorrow the fingers you
bloodied during all that clawing at the screen won't have become so
swollen up that you know tommorrow's drop down boxes with auto fill but
no way to turn them off and they are everywhere, well, you know that
tomorrow will be another bad day.

Thats it. Hopefully I didn't put too fine a point on it. I made a
point of only giving you the facts and nothing but the facts. Clean,
clear,crisp and to the point. Clarity free from editorialism. yep, in
law circles i think this would be a fine example of "Reason free from
passion". Case made. Now I hope you'll fix it before you close the
case on DropDown AutoFill Madness.

Johnnie Miller
Mineola, Tx
johnniemiller(a)fastmail.fm

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