RE: Running vs starting apps

["Tom Musgrove" <TomM pentstar com>]

"Michael T. Babcock" wrote:

> I hate to disapoint people, but you know those little MS characters in
office?
> The only people I've met who _don't_ like them are computer pros or the
type of
> self-agrandising people who can't handle being told an answer by a cartoon
> character.

Hmm..  Of eight people in this office there is only one person that doesn't
hate the characters or asked me to turn them off.  She doesn't use it for
help either, she just likes 'having a cute kitty' on her desktop.  Only I
would be characterized as a 'computer pro', and only two other users are
moderately skilled users.  The rest are fairly naive users.  The reason they
are disliked, is because they actively interfere with doing work (they tend
to 'guess' wrong on the times to pop up and offer advice).  Nor would I
consider any of the individuals 'self-aggrandizing'.

Aside from the Office Assistant, I'm also asked to turn off the
auto-formatting for outlines and such- another instance where MS Office
consistently guesses wrong.

So, my experience with non 'computer pros' is quite the contrary to yours.
It would be interesting to see some good research on this.  I think the
office assistants are actually a pretty cool idea, but the underlying help
system isn't strong enough to make it a killer feature.

Tom M.
TomM Pentstar com