Print random pages in Adobe Acrobat

In Abode Acrobat 7, the feature of printing the random pages was missing which they added in version 8. Compare the small change in "Pages" field in the pictures below which enhanced the feature.

Acrobat Reader 7 print window

Acrobat Reader 8 print window

It seems Abode and Google are tracking my blog and adding the posted missing features ;)

Finally Invisible mode on Gmail Chat

Last weekend I saw that Gmail Chat added invisible mode feature. It gives flexibility to the user to be in invisible/visible mode.

But this feature wasn’t added to Gtalk which is almost the replica of Gmail chat. So, if a user has logged in to Gtalk and Gmail chat simultaneously then Gmail chat doesn’t allow user to change the mode to invisible mode. I hope soon Google would add this feature to Gtalk also.

You can also read my earlier post written on invisible mode on Gtalk.

Parent Outlook closes its children…!!

In case a user has multiple read mail messages opened in MS Outlook and user closes the main outlook window, all the read mail messages are closed without asking for the permission from the user.

They can show a dialog box as shown below to the user similar to IE7.

Try Printing random pages in Adobe Acrobat..!!

Adobe Acrobat print window doesn’t have an option of printing random page numbers (like 1,4 and 9) from a document.

Please compare it with the MS office print window which has this option.

Photo Printing Wizard

I wanted to take a printout of one picture from a folder containing six pictures. So I right clicked on a picture, selected print from the menu and photo printing wizard launched. All the pictures of the folder were shown and that particular picture was checked as selected (as shown in the figure). It’s a good idea to show all the pictures of the folder in the photo printing wizard as a user has the option from the wizard to print other pictures of the folder. But I think the only thing missing was the filename below the thumbnail view of each picture. This would be great help so that a user could easily locate the exact file.The next time I tried to print multiple pictures; I saw the print wizard window with the selected pictures rather than all the pictures of that folder.
Hmmm…now that’s what I call “Inconsistency”!!

MS office 2007 UX

I really liked MS office 2007 self explanatory menu for the end user giving much better UX(User eXperience). Pasting below just one instance out of the whole big pool of good UX.

User just needs to select the number of rows and column required and it shows a preview to the user by generating a table instantly.

I recently attended Microsoft Expression around the Clock, Global Designer Conference at Bangalore and saw the demo of MS new product Expression. It’s launched to ease the collaborative work between designers and developers. I even met Ram, Umesh and Harish and had a discussion on various aspects of user experience.

Gtalk chat windows...!!

I was reading the Kiran's blog on Gtalk and Gmail chat synchronization problem and found out one more problem in addition to the stated problems.

Follow the steps listed below:
1. Signin to Gtalk, open two chat windows and then minimize both of them.
2. Minimize the main Gtalk application to the system tray by clicking on the cancel button.
3. Now to chat with one more user, restore the Gtalk application which is minimized on the system tray.
4. All the minimized chat windows will be automatically restored as soon as you restore the gtalk application.

So now this is an ignorance by the QA or the program manager?

Spot the file name!!

When I installed Microsoft Office on my machine, it set Microsoft Picture Manager as my default viewer to open images. I wanted to take a look at the picture’s filename and after a whole lot of looking around, I figured out it was at the bottom left corner. The application title bar just shows “Microsoft Office Picture Manager” and not the filename as if it is the name of every file which was being opened. :)

Citibank Secure Login and Payment Facility

This is Citibank’s login page.
For the sake of security, Citibank thought it was a better idea to click on a keypad rather than the good old style of typing in a password for authentication.

This seemed like a neat concept if I had Private Banking in mind (Banking in Citibank Kiosks or someplace like that) But I don’t think this is really secure considering I’m at open cyber cafe and clicking on this keypad (giving anyone crossing my desk to take a peek at my monitor and guess my password).

Wasn’t typing the password using a keyboard a better idea?? Considering my hands is covering the keyboard reducing the chances for anyone to guess my password.

Citibank has a feature “View and Pay”. This feature helps make paying monthly utility bills a lot easier. The bill account details need to be entered once and then a message and email is sent to the user every month for a payment confirmation.

It’s pretty convenient, but there is no way of cancelling a payment.

For example, I have my telecom provider registered with Citibank. I pay the bill through the website every time. But, this one time, I paid the bill when I was at the Telecom store and not through the website. After the payment was done, it did not reflect on my website. It still asked me to pay my bill I had already paid for. If a user makes a payment through the website once, they assume that he is going to do the same every time, not handling multiple payment methods.

Do you guys have any comments???

(Written after discussion and inputs from Nikhil Chandran)

Placement of Buttons

I was trying to book my ticket on Air India website (https://www.indian-airlines.org/internetbooking/ialform1.aspx) and realized the importance of the placement of buttons.

I filled up the flight details and subconsciously clicked on the Reset button instead of Continue button. Then I realized normally the button which is more likely to be used is placed first followed by the less likely one. E.g. Ok, Continue, Submit followed by Cancel, Reset.

On the second page the Continue button is followed by Reset button whereas on the first page Reset button is followed by Continue button. This even shows the consistency in the placement of the buttons on the website :)

Figure 1: To enter the journey details

Figure 2: Shows the flight information