Hi,
I just want to give my feedback regarding an "feature" in office that might exist for quite some time and is still in Office 2013 preview.
When opening a word document, it is possible that a messagebox pops up telling you:
"Word hyphenation feature is not available. Run Microsoft Office Setup program, install this feature and then try again."
The reason for this message is (if I researched it correctly): The document is written in a language which is not available inside the office system. For example I opened a german word document on an english system (Windows 8 RTM, Office 2013 preview in english).
My Feedback:
a) This message is given as a message box. An important error message can be brought up as a message box but such a simple warning should not distract the user that much. I am used that messages are simply placed below the menu. (Or is that feature gone with 2013? I didn't test that part so far!) The message box forces the user to really take an immediate action. Having such messages (which I would even rate as an informational message only!) will result in people clicking away messages (because they become annoyed) and as a result the whole system is less secure (The windows security often depends on such messages where the user is asked if he really want to open a downloaded file or is an application is allowed to do changes on the system.)
And there is no need to distract me when I quickly want to read a document (The document was even opened in viewer / read only mode!). I know, people should not send Word documents around and use formats like PDF but I think the situation is something that Microsoft likes to see.
b) The text given is simply misleading the user. Users who follow the suggestion will start the setup program and will be annoyed because they find no "hyphenation feature" that is not installed. Pointing people in the wrong direction is something you should avoid. (No more explanation required I think!)
This is just a quick feedback. I have no problem to click away an anoying message box which tries to lead me into a direction which is simply leading nowhere but Microsoft should think about changing this in the future (At least it is worth to think about this topic for a moment. At least a modification of the message text might be a quick and easy change.)
With kind regards,
Konrad
