Test Main Page | Previous Page | Next Page
Part 7. DocView Capabilities
The final area of the survey asked the user’s opinions on specific features of DocView.
7.1 DocView response time was fast enough
| Percentage | |
| Strongly agree | 47 |
| Tend to agree | 34 |
| Hard to decide | 13 |
| Tend to disagree | 4 |
| Strongly disagree | 1 |
Analysis:
81 percent of users felt that response time was fast enough. Response time includes the time to display images and print them.
7.2 The Bookmark feature was useful
| Percentage | |
| Strongly agree | 25 |
| Tend to agree | 11 |
| Hard to decide | 11 |
| Tend to disagree | 0 |
| Strongly disagree | 1 |
| I didn’t use it | 51 |
Analysis:
Slightly more than half of the respondents never tried the electronic bookmark feature. This feature allows the user to mark one or pages of a document, either for printing or for moving rapidly between sections of interest. Of those users who tried bookmarks, three fourths percent felt that this feature was useful.
| Percentage | |
| Strongly agree | 37 |
| Tend to agree | 29 |
| Hard to decide | 13 |
| Tend to disagree | 0 |
| Strongly disagree | 0 |
| I didn’t use it | 20 |
Analysis:
It is necessary to zoom in on an image if it is illegible. One fifth of all users never used this feature. Of those that used it, 85 percent felt it was useful.
| Percentage | |
| Strongly agree | 35 |
| Tend to agree | 17 |
| Hard to decide | 11 |
| Tend to disagree | 1 |
| Strongly disagree | 0 |
| I didn’t use it | 36 |
Analysis:
Some images are either printed in landscape mode, or are scanned upside down by the Ariel operator. The recipient may need to rotate them for proper viewing. More than one third of the testers never used this feature. Of those that used it, 82 percent felt it was useful.
| Percentage | |
| Strongly agree | 36 |
| Tend to agree | 5 |
| Hard to decide | 11 |
| Tend to disagree | 0 |
| Strongly disagree | 1 |
| I didn’t use it | 47 |
Analysis:
The Copy to Clipboard feature is used to create new documents from the ones received over the Internet. A user might wish to use this function when creating reports or papers. The survey shows that about half of the respondents used this feature, and of those who did, 78 percent felt that it was useful.
| Percentage | |
| Strongly agree | 69 |
| Tend to agree | 16 |
| Hard to decide | 7 |
| Tend to disagree | 3 |
| Strongly disagree | 3 |
| I didn’t use it | 3 |
Analysis:
The print function was used more than any other feature of DocView. About 85 percent felt that it was useful.
| Percentage | |
| Strongly agree | 52 |
| Tend to agree | 17 |
| Hard to decide | 7 |
| Tend to disagree | 4 |
| Strongly disagree | 1 |
| I didn’t use it | 19 |
Analysis:
About 80 percent of the DocView testers tried the message function, and of those who did, 85 percent felt it was useful. The Message function is used for sending and receiving messages and documents using Ariel FTP protocol.
| Percentage | |
| Strongly agree | 27 |
| Tend to agree | 20 |
| Hard to decide | 15 |
| Tend to disagree | 3 |
| Strongly disagree | 3 |
| I didn’t use it | 32 |
Analysis:
About 68 percent of DocView testers tried the document management facility. This facility is intended primarily for users of Windows 3.1, whose file manager permits file names only 8 characters in length. Document management allows users to increase the effective name of a document to 255 characters. It also permits grouping of documents into folders and file cabinets. Of the people who used this feature, only 69 percent felt it was useful. Since this feature offers little advantage over the Windows Explorer found in Windows 95 or NT, users of those operating systems probably would not use this function.
| Percentage | |
| Strongly agree | 36 |
| Tend to agree | 37 |
| Hard to decide | 16 |
| Tend to disagree | 5 |
| Strongly disagree | 5 |
Analysis:
73 percent of the users felt that DocView rarely failed. Most failures in DocView are likely due to either printer problems (not enough memory), lack of free disk space on the computer, or Internet communication problems. It is believed that users who receive documents via MIME email would experience fewer problems than users who receive it via Ariel FTP. This is because Ariel FTP communication requires both sending and receiving computers to be powered up simultaneously, that the recipient’s IP address be fixed, and that the sender must know the recipient’s IP address.
Comments on DocView Capabilities (e.g., reliable, flexible, features to improve or include for new releases):
1. I like the idea of linking DocView to Grateful Med searches instead of ordering them through DOCLINE. If I get a chance I will give it a try.
2. The store and forward option should be improved when enabled or disabled. The speed of printing should also be improved. The messaging option also with the ability to sort messages, save the unfinished ones etc.
3. Some idea of expected printing times would have helpful in getting started. Remove automatic display of all the document icons in the bottom of the window.
4. Reliable
5. We used Ariel to send to participating members. They used DV to receive. I heard only good things about DV, but from our end it took over 30 minutes to send an 8 pg. article. This would have to be analyzed and corrected before expansion.
6. Include other means communications. e.g. Explicit FTP get and FTP send, remote disk mount.
7. At first I liked the idea and thought it would be very helpful in speeding up the process. It actually made it slower and very disorganized. Even though I realized it's just a beta unit, I wanted to trash it after the first week.
8. DocView worked great for me once the bug was fixed. My only complaint is that the documents take a very long time to print, which is probably due in part to the age of my printer (an HP LaserJet II from 1988).
9. DocView as presently formatted seems to meet my requirements
10. Very difficult to keep in resident memory. It interferes with other software opening. Therefore, only if I knew if a document is coming would I open DocView
11. Send it as acrobat file!!
12. Since I am not sure I now or am aware of all its features I cannot really answer this question well. I would like to be able to turn all pages the correct position (not just one at a time), and put them in the correct order of backwards.
13. For people using Windows, a Toolbar is more flexible than a Document Management window.
14. Wonderful, wonderful.
15. The only problems we have had have been our IP problems, no software problems.
16. I am still trying to work out all the folder storage parameters so I cannot comment on them. I also have not used the copy to clipboard yet.
17. DocView has always worked during my testing.
18. Enhance the Message Function by allowing the user to send the same message to multiple recipients
19. As I said earlier, I haven't used DocView much yet and have not gotten into all of its features. From my experience so far, I find it very reliable.
20. Document hierarchy management (cabinets, files, etc) is a bit cumbersome.
21. Print faster (not a DocView problem) compress files for storage
22 I was not aware of all the features. A bulletin on its use would be useful for me.
23 PDF capability
24 Still haven't managed to feel confident of where or how documents are saved and catalogued.
25 Good