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2009/11/10 - New Docs Settings

posted Nov 11, 2009, 5:35 AM by Rick Anderson   [ updated Nov 11, 2009, 5:53 AM ]
Google made two additions to the Google Docs settings page. The first, "Where items open," lets you pick if you want items to open in a new window (how it works today) or in the same window.  I personally like opening a doc in a new window and leaving docs launchpad open.  The second is an "Update indicators" setting which allows the user to turn on/off indicators to easily spot brand new and viewed/unviewed items (Google must have received some user flack when they released this feature a couple weeks ago - so they have placed an option switch - which is the correct way to release a new feature in my opinion).  I personally have turned off the feature as I didn't care to have my list of documents "grayed" out.

Which brings up an interesting topic for debate - when adding new features, programmers should generate the appropriate code to allow for those new features to be turned on/off.  I've seen too many times when new features get added because at some level (program manager, product manager, coder) someone thought it was necessary and it becomes what I call the "it's my baby" syndrome.  Not everyone thinks "the baby" is beautiful, useful, cool, or necessary - therefore, out of respect to the user base, all new features should have option settings to be turned on or off.
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