20090225

Problem ID: 7214784627644632149
Entered by: Zachary Fisher

Need vs. Want



  Edit

7 Comments:

February 25, 2009 at 11:53 PM  
Comment ID: 4919591789121057070
Written by: Ben Simo

I suspect this issue that triggered these screens may be that IE (and not Chrome) is needed for the ActiveX requirements of the Microsoft Office site.

However, the 'needed' solution for the problem is a bigger problem.

February 26, 2009 at 12:10 PM  
Comment ID: 5434514677570995145
Written by: Zachary Fisher

Tried it in Firefox as well. Same results.

February 26, 2009 at 1:20 PM  
Comment ID: 3443675614919311603
Written by: Ben Simo

Try IE. If it really requires ActiveX, then it likely requires IE. If so, a better error message would be to state that Internet Explorer is required.

February 26, 2009 at 11:15 PM  
Comment ID: 2205718658398112693
Written by: Zachary Fisher

<rant necessity="low" hand_waving="on">
The problem here is: I wanted to acquire a Microsoft Word template from an online repository that is maintained by Microsoft and made available to me via links from within my installation of Microsoft Word 2002.

A question I would ask is: why bring ActiveX controls into the fray? It is a template for invoicing, not plans to enrich uranium. And potentially constraining your customer base to try various flavors of browsers until one "works" is unacceptable - even if it would ultimately drop this "Holy Grail" template into my lap.

Enabling cookies notwithstanding.

It is 2009. A brave, new world with genome mapping, energy drinks, and non-IE browsers. At least the EU thinks it should be.
</rant>

February 26, 2009 at 11:18 PM  
Comment ID: 70944691143449208
Written by: Zachary Fisher

Having gotten that off my chest, I failed to say thank you for trying to help me solve the issue at hand. I would not want you to think my frustrations are born out of your attempts to be a good person.

February 27, 2009 at 7:02 AM  
Comment ID: 458074464644579281
Written by: Ben Simo

:) I completely agree. There's no reason to bring proprietary technology (other than Office) into downloading a template for an Office product.

So I see two issues. First is that ActiveX appears to be required. The second is that the first problem is made worse with bad error messages and a proposed solution that doesn't deal with the problem.

IMO, A user should not need to know about ActiveX (a technology platform detail) and what browsers it runs on to solve the problem.

March 10, 2009 at 5:54 PM  
Comment ID: 9222997414309045089
Written by: Anonymous
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

Post a Comment