H
Hunky Chunky Funk Dunky
The last time I was on here about the EqEd it was a bit of a rant about
functionality that nearly worked and had got worse since W2k
Firstly an old complaint, yet again MS has ignored the Professional market
of engineers, scientists and mathematicians. There is a huge market for
powerful applications and O/Ss that don’t have all of the bells and whistles
that Windows and Office always seem to overburden themselves with.
I said in my last post that MS developers should look at MathCad’s UI, this
still stands true, but there is still room for improvement.
The MathCad UI consists of multiple toolbars with various symbols and signs
etc grouped easily. At least with this UI you can find the symbols you need
quickly. Unfortunately with Mathcad you’re flitting backward and forward
between keyboard and mouse, this is neither productive nor helpful for RSI
etc.
EqEd’s Symbols tool is even worse, you click in the bottom right hand corner
to expand the tool and then go diagonally to the top left hand corner to
change the symbol type. This is unsatisfactory.
We need to be able to undock the Symbols and the Structures tools so they
can be stacked either side of the page. We then need keyboard shortcuts, for
example Alt and left arrow for Symbols, Alt and right arrow for Structures,
Alt and down arrow to expand relevant tool, Alt and up arrow to collapse,
Page Up and Page Down to page through the sections in each tool. And then
have keyboard shortcuts for each symbol and structure sign, so ‘ro’ would be
Alt+p and uppercase ‘ro’ would be Alt+Shift+p. Equivalence would be Alt+= and
not equals would be Alt+Ctrl+=. These keyboard tooltip need to be displayed
as tooltips.
Inputting structure, such as the integral sign needs improving, for example,
if I enter “0 1 x†and then the integral sign I would get the integral, from
0 to 1, of x. If I entered the integral sign first the EqEd would highlight
the lower limit first, then the upper limit and finally the integrand. This
would save you from having to use the mouse to select the relevant area or
from using additional key strokes to position the cursor.
Now is the chance for MS to vastly improve the EqEd and make a commitment to
the professional market of science, maths and engineering.
HTH
--
Hunky Chunky Funky Dunky
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I''m
not sure about the former."
Albert Einstein
----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...f7e470&dg=microsoft.public.word.docmanagement
functionality that nearly worked and had got worse since W2k
Firstly an old complaint, yet again MS has ignored the Professional market
of engineers, scientists and mathematicians. There is a huge market for
powerful applications and O/Ss that don’t have all of the bells and whistles
that Windows and Office always seem to overburden themselves with.
I said in my last post that MS developers should look at MathCad’s UI, this
still stands true, but there is still room for improvement.
The MathCad UI consists of multiple toolbars with various symbols and signs
etc grouped easily. At least with this UI you can find the symbols you need
quickly. Unfortunately with Mathcad you’re flitting backward and forward
between keyboard and mouse, this is neither productive nor helpful for RSI
etc.
EqEd’s Symbols tool is even worse, you click in the bottom right hand corner
to expand the tool and then go diagonally to the top left hand corner to
change the symbol type. This is unsatisfactory.
We need to be able to undock the Symbols and the Structures tools so they
can be stacked either side of the page. We then need keyboard shortcuts, for
example Alt and left arrow for Symbols, Alt and right arrow for Structures,
Alt and down arrow to expand relevant tool, Alt and up arrow to collapse,
Page Up and Page Down to page through the sections in each tool. And then
have keyboard shortcuts for each symbol and structure sign, so ‘ro’ would be
Alt+p and uppercase ‘ro’ would be Alt+Shift+p. Equivalence would be Alt+= and
not equals would be Alt+Ctrl+=. These keyboard tooltip need to be displayed
as tooltips.
Inputting structure, such as the integral sign needs improving, for example,
if I enter “0 1 x†and then the integral sign I would get the integral, from
0 to 1, of x. If I entered the integral sign first the EqEd would highlight
the lower limit first, then the upper limit and finally the integrand. This
would save you from having to use the mouse to select the relevant area or
from using additional key strokes to position the cursor.
Now is the chance for MS to vastly improve the EqEd and make a commitment to
the professional market of science, maths and engineering.
HTH
--
Hunky Chunky Funky Dunky
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I''m
not sure about the former."
Albert Einstein
----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...f7e470&dg=microsoft.public.word.docmanagement