Handouts driving me crazy!

George,

thanks, I actually like the idea of generating handouts for study.

If it was customizable like an exegetical guide or passage guide, that would be great! (you know...sections to check off and on and reorder as necessary)

Scratch some of that, By setting it to Sheet/letter/singleside I'm able to force it to one page, but I feel like I'm pulling teeth the whole way, and random junk keeps being automatically added.

Please, start with a blank page and let me choose what to add, rather than forcing me to figure out how to take away.

Bob,

Thanks for your reply, especially in light of my not-too-generous outburst.  I do understand now what you want to do.  I just think it's the wrong direction.

This is a design choice that we hope
reflects an easier to use application. If you want to start with a
blank page and fill it up with the content you create and lay it out
the way you want it, great. But that's not our handout feature, that's
a word-processor / desktop-publishing app / document-editor. There are
lots of those out there, and there's no need for us to build
another.

I am not asking to add a bunch of my own content.  I am asking for a blank page with all of the preconfigured options defaulted to off instead of on.

I feel that it is a mistake to make me take stuff away from the start.   I feel a much better interface would have the handout blank and the empty checkboxes to the left.  In other words, the precise same setup but with the checkboxes defaulted to off instead of on.  That way I can see what's available and add it.

Obviously I disagree with your intent, and that disagreement can become moot real easy as soon as the handout starts making better choices (why do I want the family tree of Jesus or Mary or Zacheus in 1 Peter 1:1-5?).  But I can guarantee right now that I'll get very frustrated if every time I want to create a handout I have to uncheck thirty items I don't want.  That is not a document that is ready to print from the start.  It's a headache.

I know you're trying to read your customers mind and provide them immediately with what they want, but handouts are inherently personal, and will always demand personalization.

If you really want to make the handout busy from the get go than choose 2-4 items that you think will go on every hand out like the passage,  a word find and a graphic and leave the rest blank.  But please please please do not auto-enable 20-30 items.

Oh, I should add that starting with only 1 page filled instead of 4 would be better.

the Caption, Credit and Copyright fields seem a bit pointless to me - at least at the moment.

Nigel

I see this as a great "marketing" tool to promote your Church within the community.  If, for example, you are having a fund raising day you could have your Church's contact details on a sheet that can be distributed to any children that turn up and you have created an activity for them to do and/or take away.  And of course acknowledging Logos for the material is also helping them out [;)]

Just my $.02.

I like the idea of a drag and drop handout tool.  I do agree that it would be best to start with either, a ready to go sheet that I could just click a few buttons and print.  But how hard would it be to have a "clear page" button so that what has been suggested could then be done.  Clear page, then start over adding the content from the list.  This would be a nice compromise.

Just my $.02.

I like the idea of a drag and drop handout tool.  I do agree that it would be best to start with either, a ready to go sheet that I could just click a few buttons and print.  But how hard would it be to have a "clear page" button so that what has been suggested could then be done.  Clear page, then start over adding the content from the list.  This would be a nice compromise.

I like this idea, I'll put in a request.

Darren,

Thanks for showing me that.  It is slightly better.  Yet we still require a "clear all" button for the already generated Handouts like the ones that appear in passage guide.

And of course I'm eager for some proper tagging to begin showing a difference.  I have no clue why Stephen's accusation and Esther's family tree is included in Nehemiah 6:1-9.  The selection of materials in the handouts are so completely random and disconnected that it is in β2 worthless.

I feel a little bit better now that I have been able to do some simple  editing of a handout, adding a title, inserting a question etc. (and printing it out successfully).

But when it only appears as a simple Word Find or just as an (attractive artistic) sheet with Bible passage printed out - then no, I probably would not use it too much.

BUT my wife creates these "simple" bible passage/question sheets for the Youth group. As a NON power user (but someone with an artistic "eye" etc,) She might then find this a helpful feature. As long  as she does not get too frustrated with the edit/insert process...

I need to see if this edit window can paste/insert from Word  etc

Steve

Ditto.  The reports as they stand are slower than molasses in mid January.  Far from being an instant success, working with handouts are an interminable torture session.

"A single word find and the passage should be enough"

I too, could live with that.

Steve

"A single word find and the passage should be enough"

I too, could live with that.

Agreed.... The blank section is neat when you have some specific information or instructions you want to add but not always required.  The ability to add a RELEVANT graphic is also great to have when its required.. but being forced to add a whole lot of totally irrevelvant stuff continues to make this feature a white elephant.

Thank you! 

Add a blank item is not a fix, it's worse than a kludge, it's a workaround for poor implementation. 

I'm a tweaker by nature.  I can remember editing config.sys and autoexec.bat files for hours to make my Dos 3.x and beyond computers do exactly what I wanted.  I'm the kind of guy who would naturally find workarounds and shortcuts - I do that all the time.  But the real bulk, of L4 users will never stand for a feature that demands workarounds and tweaks to make it work at the most basic level

Fix handouts:

1. Never select anything by default.  Ever
2. Never force fill a page.  Ever.
3. Optimize, optimize, optimize.
4. Fix printing for non-duplex printers.