There is only one slight problem with what you say: None of us MVPs work for
Microsoft. We do this as volunteers who use the product and love it. We
don't get paid for what we do.
Kathy, having done this kind of thing in a similar capacity before, I know
what you mean. It's a labor of love and you are volunteering to do it. I
have nothing but respect for people who volunteer their time to help others.
I answered the question the way I did because I felt that RMagruder should
know that there was a workaround out there (developed by a volunteer and
offered on several sites for free).
The problem these days with searching the Internet for something is that all
too often you get too MUCH information, not too little. I spent a little bit
of time, starting with the help bar on the right of OneNote, typing in search
strings that I thought might help, and when it became obvious the feature
wasn't there, I clicked on the link to "Suggest to Microsoft". Honestly,
that was all it was. Discouragement at not being able to do something I felt
was pretty obvious, and a request for MS to remedy this. Perhaps you guys
are assuming that people won't submit a suggestion without first spending
copious amounts of time digging, but that assumes we all have the time and
inclination to do that. In my case, I was in the middle of a development
project and OneNote was a tool I was using to share some information quickly
about it. I didn't have the time to shelf my work and become a OneNote
newsgroup junkie for awhile looking for an answer. I went through the
product's help, did a quick google and browsed the first several hits, an
then made a product suggestion. I do not believe you should assume everyone
should do any more than that (and indeed, some will make a suggestion after
simply using the help that comes with the product).
Helpful replies include: "Thanks for the suggestion. MS is already planning
to do just that in the next version" and "It doesn't do it now, but there are
workarounds on the web" (heck, even if he doesn't paste the link, I might now
renew my searching with a great deal more gusto now that I know there IS a
pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Unhelpful replies include: "There will always be more things you can do with
a pen than you can do with a mouse". See the difference? The first two
replies are helpful and non-condescending, and the last concludes that anyone
dumb enough to have not become a OneNote newsgroup junkie is also dumb enough
to be ignorant about basic differences between a mouse and a tablet. One
should not err on the side of concluding that the person on the other end is
an complete imbecile. It's not great for communication.
You guys can defend the answer I got all you like, but I think it's more
about saving face at this point. I think even the original responder would
now answer my suggestion differently, even if he's going to defend to the
death his original response now.
It took me six or seven re-writes before
I was able to answer in a way I was willing to post, since I felt that the
original post was a "I want this, I want it now, I want it my way and I
don't want to work to find it" post.
Wow, was that what I wrote? I don't remember writing that. I remember
clicking on "Make a suggestion" and saying "OneNote should be able to do
this" and explaining WHY I wanted OneNote to be able to do it. The fact that
it was in a suggestion link demonstrates that I knew it was not in the
product (hence the ridiculousness of inferring that "I want it NOW"). As for
"I don't want to work to find it", I'm sorry...so the tacit understanding is
that all OneNote (or any MS Office product) should be willing to "work" to
find an answer before they can ask anyone for help or make a suggestion? I
didn't realize I wasn't buying a productivity tool but a new hobby where I'm
expected to have performed a certain acceptable level of research before
asking for help or making a suggestion. I'm sorry, but your post REEKS of
condescension, and you were so helpful in the first post you wrote! Gee, I'm
really sorry, Kathy, that I didn't first EARN the right to make a suggestion
by setting aside my real work (software development) and researching the
issue more thoroughly before asking a suggestion.
To help me out, how many hours of research would you suggest I do before
clicking on the link to as you MVP's a question? 1? 2? 8? I just need to
know how much time I need to spend researching before I'm considered NOT an
imbecile who doesn't know a mouse from a pen?
Randy
