FF&EZ is designed for users with a visual approach to working, that is, design professionals. It differs from generic Windows-based software in that it does not use a traditional "menu" system. There are two related reasons for this:
Of course, the reality is that FF&EZ actually does employ a menu system, but you are always in the top-level of that system, with the sub-options for your current menu choice ready for use. Once you get past the opening screen, the "Views" buttons are your top-level menu and the "Commands" that you see are the sub-options for whatever type of information you have chosen to work on. Further, the logic at work is simplified to two questions, in this order: "What do you want to work on?" "What do you want to do to it?" For instance, if you want to clone (copy) an entire room, the answers are... "I want to work on a room the Room List" and... "I want to clone it." ...respectively. This translates to:
The exact steps, of course, depend on where you started in the system, but you are never more than three steps from accessing the function you want to do and usually much less. The result is a system that either uses fewer steps to accomplish the same task or uses the same number, but in a different, more natural order. For instance, if you need to add a vendor while working on a spec, here are the ways you might do it in a traditional system vs. that in FF&EZ (plus an example of a typical FF&EZ shortcut):
Note that in FF&EZ you never have to close main editing screens (like the Vendor Screen) in order to return to another one. In fact, your work will proceed quickly once you understand that the "Views" buttons are meant to simply switch you from one work location (screen) to another without closing any of them. It will proceed even faster once you learn the various shortcuts, like the "in practice" procedural shortcut mentioned above and the keyboard shortcuts available on the editing forms. |