I like free software and I do my best to contribute where I can.
e.g. report bugs, update wikis, open-source code I write.
So I tried to use LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office.
However, although it looks like it should be OK to use it just doesn't cut the mustard.
Let me give you some examples of things that work in Excel (and have worked since as far as I can remember).
Dragging cells.
Select a range of cells then drag it to a new place.
In Excel the pointer changes when you hover over the border of the range and you drag it to a new place. Every time.
In Calc the pointer doesn't change and a large proportion of the time I end up creating a new range instead!
Tooltips
Excel has tooltips on all the toolbar buttons.
For some reason in Calc none of the tooltips appear on the toolbar buttons.
Text wrapping
- I downloaded a file from Google Docs that had the wrapping on a cell that meant I couldn't see the whole contents.
In Excel it was immediately obvious that this was the case (highlighted in the ribbon).
In Calc I still havn't managed to find out how to turn this on and off!
Row height
In Excel I can see the row height in pixels as I resize and can set them all to 17.
In Calc I have no idea if all my rows are the same height or not as there is no feedback.
Now these look like trivial problems and they should come second to things like making sure the calculations are correct.
On the one hand that is true, on the other hand; if I am frustrated at every turn in every little operation I do, I'm just not going to bother even finding out if the calculations are correct because I've stopped using the application.
Now its not just LibreOffice that suffer from this.
I see it in million dollar trading systems too.
People need to spend more time on the small details and add some polish to applications.
Spend 1 day a month doing little things, like making sure that your text boxes have context menus.
Or hire new staff and put them on all the low priority work to get used to it.
Don't underestimate how much people will slag off your application for the tiny flaws.
Don't forget about the big calculations but don't neglect the polish!
