Returning to the OOwrite malfuntion question. (for Tim especially)

[Aaron Konstam]

On Mon, 2007-11-05 at 19:47 +1030, Tim wrote:
> Tim: 
> >> If setting the page format as landscape is all that's required, and you
> >> don't also have to change the printer settings, then nothing is broken.
> >> That's how you should make landscape documents.
> 
> Aaron Konstam: 
> > I don't agree. Going to: File->Printer setup and click Landscape should
> > also work.
> 
> Printer settings should only affect how the printer works.  The layout
> of a document is a document parameter ("page" formatting).
> 
> You're not putting the paper through the printer sideways, are you?  You
> want the program to orient the document to certain dimensions.  If
> you're just going to turn the paper around in the printer, as such a
> printer configuration setting suggests, you can expect a program to
> print it's portrait-oriented document sideways, for it to remain a
> portrait oriented document.  Or to simply squeeze the document into the
> way you've twisted the paper around.
> 
> As someone else put it, this is pilot error.  You're doing it wrong.
> And it doesn't matter whether you're copying the wrong behaviour of some
> other program, either.  A document's page usage is a property of the
> page format, and that's where you should do your landscape/portrait
> configuration.  There's more to it than just which way the paper is
> turned around, there's line widths and lengths, and where the page
> breaks go, to be considered.
> 
> -- 
> (This computer runs FC7, my others run FC4, FC5 & FC6, in case that's
>  important to the thread.)
> 
> Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
> I read messages from the public lists.
> 
Ok, let me explain one more time. What you say is quite correct
philosophically. The orientation of the document is not a printer
problem.
However, here is what we have in the real world. It is clear to me that
the Linux world want to sell itself as compatible with the MS way of
doing things. Ubuntu is the most widely used Linux because when you
install it you get access to all the basic tools that Windows gives you
for no cost. A browser, a word processor, a Excel clone, etc.

Now here is the real life question you need to answer.If the openoffice
developers did not want you to be able to choose Portrait vs Landscape
in the Print and Print Setup GUI why did they put the options to make
that decision there? The answer is because MS Word does. Not
philosophically correct but practical in the real world.
--
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The early bird gets the coffee left over from the night before.
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Aaron Konstam telephone: (210) 656-0355 e-mail: akonstam at sbcglobal.net