Why does OE do this?

In English speaking (more correctly, I should say English reading) nations,
people read from left to right and from the top to the bottom of the page
and people intuitively see the cause first and then the effect, ie, the
throw then the catch; the question then the answer etc., etc.

So why then, when replying to emails or to postings in newsgroups, does
Outlook Express by default put the cursor at the *top* of the page with the
original message underneath?

Darn stupid, I reckon. It isn't rocket science and yet none of the
programmers have sorted this anomaly out.

John.

For XP/SP2 only, you can control top and bottom posting with this registry
change.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{GUID for the
identity}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0

Right click on a blank spot in the right pane | New | Dword and create a new
DWORD and name it:

Reply AT End

To bottom post, set the value to 1
To top post, set the value to 0
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"John" wrote in message
...
In English speaking (more correctly, I should say English reading)
nations, people read from left to right and from the top to the bottom of
the page and people intuitively see the cause first and then the effect,
ie, the throw then the catch; the question then the answer etc., etc.

So why then, when replying to emails or to postings in newsgroups, does
Outlook Express by default put the cursor at the *top* of the page with
the original message underneath?

Darn stupid, I reckon. It isn't rocket science and yet none of the
programmers have sorted this anomaly out.

John.

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
For XP/SP2 only, you can control top and bottom posting with this registry
change.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{GUID for the
identity}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0

Right click on a blank spot in the right pane | New | Dword and create a
new DWORD and name it:

Reply AT End

To bottom post, set the value to 1
To top post, set the value to 0
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"John" wrote in message
...
In English speaking (more correctly, I should say English reading)
nations, people read from left to right and from the top to the bottom of
the page and people intuitively see the cause first and then the effect,
ie, the throw then the catch; the question then the answer etc., etc.

So why then, when replying to emails or to postings in newsgroups, does
Outlook Express by default put the cursor at the *top* of the page with
the original message underneath?

Darn stupid, I reckon. It isn't rocket science and yet none of the
programmers have sorted this anomaly out.

John.

Thanks Bruce, will do that.

John.

"John" wrote in message ...
In English speaking (more correctly, I should say English reading) nations, people read from left
to right and from the top to the bottom of the page and people intuitively see the cause first and
then the effect, ie, the throw then the catch; the question then the answer etc., etc.

So why then, when replying to emails or to postings in newsgroups, does Outlook Express by default
put the cursor at the *top* of the page with the original message underneath?

Darn stupid, I reckon. It isn't rocket science and yet none of the programmers have sorted this
anomaly out.

John.
John. Think about it. If I were replying to you about your message, you would already know what
you said.
Therefore you would only be interested in my reply and would like to have it right on top.
When you are reading news groups, you are interested in the sequence.
Now as a programmer who do your satisfy? No matter which way you pick you will **** off someone
like you.

If you read the first message in a thread, just go to the next message and
read the reply.
Continue to the next message, etc..

If you bottom post, go to the next message, scroll to the reply, read the
reply.
Continue to the next message, scroll to the reply, read the reply, etc..

Bottom posting makes for a lot of scrolling.

One way to not have to do the scrolling is to not include the previous post.
This is not a good idea.
--
Ronald Sommer

"Richard in AZ" wrote in message
...
:
: "John" wrote in message
...
: In English speaking (more correctly, I should say English reading)
nations, people read from left
: to right and from the top to the bottom of the page and people
intuitively see the cause first and
: then the effect, ie, the throw then the catch; the question then the
answer etc., etc.
:
: So why then, when replying to emails or to postings in newsgroups, does
Outlook Express by default
: put the cursor at the *top* of the page with the original message
underneath?
:
: Darn stupid, I reckon. It isn't rocket science and yet none of the
programmers have sorted this
: anomaly out.
:
: John.
: John. Think about it. If I were replying to you about your message, you
would already know what
: you said.
: Therefore you would only be interested in my reply and would like to have
it right on top.
: When you are reading news groups, you are interested in the sequence.
: Now as a programmer who do your satisfy? No matter which way you pick
you will **** off someone
: like you.
:
:

N. Miller wrote:
On Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:36:37 -0600, Ron Sommer wrote:

Bottom posting makes for a lot of scrolling.

Just a thumb tap on the space bar for me...

Indeed.

Also one should not "bottom-post", but post in an *interleaved*
manner, i.e. quote-response, quote-response, etc., while snipping non
relevant/essential parts. *Real* bottom-posting is indeed worse than
top-posting.

As to the right cursor position: That's *neither* at the top *nor* at
the bottom, but on the *first* line *after* the attribution line, so the
respondent can read/snip/respond as (s)he goes along. I.e. in the case
of this response the cursor should be as follows:

N. Miller wrote:
_
^-- cursor

It's a pity that the most used (because it's already installed)
newsreader (OE) has got this basic News/Usenet aspect so totally wrong.

"N. Miller" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:36:37 -0600, Ron Sommer wrote:

Bottom posting makes for a lot of scrolling.

Just a thumb tap on the space bar for me...


Provided focus is not in the Views bar
while you're trying to use the Preview pane to read with... ; )

I get burned by that one by bottom posters most.
Or, if I realize that I can't scroll the window I have to either open
the message in its own window (e.g. press Ctrl-o) or press Shift-Tab,End
and then hope that the poster didn't write so much that I will have to scroll
backwards. Often with bottom posters one Space is not enough
to scroll to the bottom anyway.

In fact, just about any cursor key used when focus is in the Views bar
is usually unwanted. ; ] Pressing the first character of a View name
on the other hand is extremely useful when it is in that state... ; )


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