GNU bug report logs - #15095
24.2; mail items in Tools menu confusing to new users

Previous Next

Full log

Message #23 received at 15095 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Carson Chittom <carson <at> wistly.net>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 15095 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#15095: 24.2; mail items in Tools menu confusing to new users
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 07:02:21 -0500

Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:

> I'm guessing everyone is nowadays aware of a function in a word
> processor that sends the current document via email.  So I think you
> are wrong here.

I have to disagree.  It's my experience--and granted, the plural of
anecdote is not data--that in an office where Microsoft Office is used
heavily, daily, nearly no one uses this functionality, even if they are
aware of it; and very few are aware of it.  I know this because messages
are by default formatted differently (for example, the signature block
is not used) if they are sent in this way.  My co-workers invariably 

   - save the file
   - open Outlook
   - compose a new message
   - locate the file in Explorer
   - drag it into the new message to attach it, and then hit "send"

I see them do it every day.

Even in LibreOffice (which is what I have on the machine I'm writing
this from), the menu item is simply "Send", which then has a submenu to
give you several choices, of which the first is "Document as Email...."
Moreover, it's in the "File" menu, which I think makes it considerably
clearer to a new user that "here is an option which will allow you to
send the current file/document via email."

>> Incidentally, I didn't remember what came up, so I just tried (via 
>> emacs -Q and then going through Rmail) to send a message like a new user
>> would.  Emacs (presumably message.el) just prompts me to select "mail
>> client," "transport," or "smtp" to send my message; and there is no
>> indication that I've left Rmail.
>
> The indication is in the mode line, as usual in Emacs.  After all,
> that's how you know you are in Rmail, right?

It just says "Message."  There is no indication--again, to a user
unfamiliar with Emacs--that Message isn't just some part of Rmail.  To
be clear, I'm not saying there *should* be an indication other than the
mode line.  I'm just saying that to a new user it doesn't *matter*.

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.