Xara X documentation

[James Loudon]

I've been using Xara since v2, and am quite familiar with it, but have still got lots to learn. With the launch of X and the departure from Corel, Xara will be looking for lots of new customers, and a positive reaction from the press. So many good programs are let down by having badly written, or very slim documentation. (hello Micrografx) I'm sure that even experienced users of Xara would welcome a good manual, and book of tips - ideas of things to do. Programs like this encourage the user to think laterally sometimes, and its always good to get someone elses perspective. What are the plans, Xara? Even if it is in PDF format, a really good users book would have a profound effect on sales, and user productivity. You could always employ Gary to take care of it for you!

[James Loudon]

I've been using Xara since v2, and am quite familiar with it, but have still got lots to learn. With the launch of X and the departure from Corel, Xara will be looking for lots of new customers, and a positive reaction from the press. So many good programs are let down by having badly written, or very slim documentation. (hello Micrografx) I'm sure that even experienced users of Xara would welcome a good manual, and book of tips - ideas of things to do. Programs like this encourage the user to think laterally sometimes, and its always good to get someone elses perspective. What are the plans, Xara? Even if it is in PDF format, a really good users book would have a profound effect on sales, and user productivity. You could always employ Gary to take care of it for you!

[Klaus Nordby]

The Xara people are pretty good with documentation, but I really DETEST that they are STILL using the arcaic and ugly Windows "Help" system. Why not move all this material to HTML files? There won't be ANY users of this product which don't have a browser installed. Get with the times, Xara!

KN

[Egg Bramhill]

I agreee with Klaus on this matter. I suppose it's a matter of keeping costs down when it comes to printed documentation. I purchased Xara 1.5 from a retail outfit, when Corel were still "selling" Xara, and this came with an excellent manual, which I still occasionally refer to today.

However, having recently purchased Flash 4, and paid 17.5 % VAT (European Tax) to get a manual version, I was greatly let down, on discovering the manual was just an exact reproduction of the on disc HTML version.

So I would go with Klaus, no manual but move the help files to HTML.

Egg

[gwpriester]

Ah, Klaus, you never were one to mince words, eh? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

Be It Every So Humble...

[Klaus Nordby]

Sexless Gary Person: Minced words are wasted words.

Be it ever so unhumble,

Klaus Man
www.pixpush.com/klaus

[amoore]

I'm sure there must be someone who's produced an HTML help system with substance. So far, I haven't found one. The HTML systems I've encountered to date are all flash and minimal content. [I'm sure that's not HTML's fault... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]]

Poysonally, I'm perfectly happy with the archaic Windows help system so long as it supplies the info I need.

Motto for help systems: More help, less hype! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[davidm]

HTML help may be newfangled and cutting edge, but it's also slow, inflexible, and horribly inefficient. The 'archaic, ugly' Windows help system is actually a fairly efficient way of delivering indexed, searchable, cross-referenced information.

I always groan when I ask an application for help and it fires up a web browser (or worse, some custom help interface). I've asked for help - the last thing I need is a non-standard user interface that I've got to learn my way around, which can't do pop-up glossary-style windows easily and which takes an age to search. I know how the Widows help system operates, and I know how to find information with it.

Ollie tried converting all the Xara help pages to HTML around the time of 1.5, when Microsoft was making noises about HTML help being the thing of the future. It was a nightmare. It sucked. Many features of Windows help simply couldn't be replicated properly. It still would suck today - all that's happened is that we've found new and creative ways to crash MSIE using JavaScript and Flash.

Sometimes, the original ways are the best.

David

[caraman1]

Now there's a name I haven't seen in a while. Thanks for stopping by and clearing that up, David!

Dennis [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

<a href=http://www.inconnect.com/~dennisco/>Carillus Design</a>

[Mark Goodall]

Just to confirm David's posting, we deliberately do not use the latest HTML help technology because of the feature and performance issues, and what is more I predict that in future other software will shun the clumsy, pedestrian help currently fashionable.

Mark Goodall
Xara Ltd