Thursday 18 March 2010

Generic software and customisation

There's a problem with most software in that it needs to include a broad range of features to suit a broad range of users. However, if you only require a small subset of those features, generic software is unable to accommodate just that part. All features are exposed and all must be acknowledged, used or ignored, making the software seem like overkill for everyone. Your only real option is to find something more specifically tailored to you or to write it yourself, both of which present their own problems. What we need is a way to hide features we don't want, so that generic software seems more personally suitable. Not that everyone will take the time to customise their programs, however.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I've been using Microsoft OneNote at work.
PPS - It's hard to adjust from my own custom note-taking program.

2 comments:

Stu said...

PS - I've been using Microsoft OneNote at work.
PPS - It's hard to adjust from my own custom note-taking program.


Although, if you combined OneNote with DropBox, you have a great live collaboration tool

John said...

True, and we do use shared OneNote files as a kind of wiki for collaboration, but on the work LAN there's no need for DropBox.