Splashscreen for OpenOffice.org 2.0 Wanted

An anonymous reader writes "From the OOo site: 'OpenOffice.org 2.0 is coming fast and it needs a new splashscreen. You can help. Send us your best by 10 December and it might be seen on the desktops of tens upon tens of millions next year.' For more information, visit the OpenOffice.org website."

Splash Screens are Evil

[RAMMS+EIN]

Splashscreen for OpenOffice.org 2.0 wanted?!

Splash screens are evil! They pop up in front of you, disabling you from doing what you were doing, and don't allow you to start doing what you started the app for. They are just a smoke screen for a badly done application.

The way to do it (assuming you're going to open a window) is to first open the window, so that the user sees the app is launching, and can position the window where he wants it. This prevents popping up a window at some unpredictable future time, which distracts and annoys users.

So what to do if your app takes a long time to load? First off, it shouldn't. You don't have to load all functionality at once, just in case the user might want it. You can load it on demand. Secondly, if loading still takes a long time, you can indicate loading progress in the window you created.

Agreed

[jefu]

I agreee completely. OpenOffice starts slowly enough that a splash screen does help indicate that it is really doing something, but honestly I'd rather not have to watch it. Often I start OpenOffice to open a MS word document that someone sent me in my mail and I'd rather keep reading my mail than have to watch the progress bar creep across (slow machine) the screen. Make it optional at least and make it easy to find the preference to turn it off (if there is one now I can't locate it).

Re:It needs it like a hole in the head

[Make]

why troll. i like applications the unix way. if they have nothing useful to say, they should not say anything.

what use is a splash screen? (okay openoffice may be so SLOOOOOOW that they want to entertain the user while it loads... omg what a self diss)

Re:Plz consider my entry

[jacksonscottsly]

What's with all the talk about OOo being so damned slow? I find it incredibly responsive on my machines. The machine I'm using now (Gentoo on P4@700MHz + 512MB RAM) takes less than 3-4 seconds to load up (ximianized) OOo 1.1.3! My laptop (Gentoo on PIII@400MHz + 256MB) still only takes 10-15 seconds to load OOo entirely (non-ximianized, OOo 1.1.3, i think). Give them a break, it's a damned good application and it runs almost as smoothly as Abiword for me.

Re:Splash Screens are Evil

[renoX]

Agreed, splash screen should be removed, "splash window" like you described are much, much better!