Since these forums are the primary way new users can learn how to get the most out of DO, I suggest that you make a direct link to them under the main page "Support" button (rather than the two-clicks currently needed). I also suggest that you call that menu item "Help" or "Forums" because to many people the phrase "technical support" implies trying to fix bugs or crashes rather than simply trying to figure out how to best use a product that is otherwise working correctly. I often have to pause for a second to figure out how to get here from the main page.
Also, as a new and enthusiastic DO user without much technical know-how, I also have feedback on the documentation. Are the developers interested in hearing it? Where is the appropriate place to post it?
OK. FYI, I'm more likely to provide feedback if you comment on whether you agree/disagree with my suggestions (like the one about the Support menu) so I know what's worth spending time on.
I just took some notes as I'm trying to learn the program and here are three thoughts:
It was hard to find a full list of keyboard shortcuts/hotkeys. I found it under a tab that says "keys" but that is not a standard label for these items. I recommend creating an item in the manual that can be located by searching for either shortcut or hotkey.
When changing hotkeys, you are supposed to press a green circle with check in it to confirm the change. This is a very nonstandard way / icon to indicate "confirmed change". Most programs use a button with the word "apply". Usually green and check mean something like "acceptable" or "okay" and I initially assumed that the green check would change to something else (like a red X) if I tried to enter something where there was a conflict with another keyboard shortcut. Further, when I hit "OK" on the window, I assumed my keyboard shortcut change was accepted (that usually applies any changes made) and I was confused when it didn't work. I recommend that if you make changes in this window and someone hits "OK" without saving it that you pop up a dialog box asking whether they want to discard changes, which again is very standard.
I was trying to figure out how to create my own buttons. I was excited when I found a page in the help file labeled "creating your own buttons." Unfortunately, this page does not actually tell you how to create your own buttons – it merely gives tips and points you to other resources. I only figured out how to create my own buttons semi-randomly by reading the forums.
That's to protect against accidentally trashing the hotkeys. It's only in the full list of hotkeys, and not when editing individual hotkeys/commands (e.g. double-click an item in that list).
We could improve the UI there though, definitely. Adding labels to those buttons is something I have planned, and we might be able to make it so the button doesn't appear until a change is made, which makes it more obvious it needs to be clicked.
That page is the start of a whole section in the manual. Expand the branch for a lot more documentation on different aspects of creating buttons:
If you aren't viewing the "Contents" tab to see that the section can be expanded and has sub-pages, they are also listed at the bottom of the page itself:
I've made some slight changes to the manual which add a few words/sentences that may help a little with some of the above. (Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of control over what the Search tab in the manual finds for individual phrases, but I've clarified things like the button editing page being the first of a large section.)
Glad to see the comments were useful. Re: hotkeys, you write:
I knew that a list of hotkeys can be found in the program, and I was able to eventually find them myself, but it was difficult. Since the keyboard map is not a list of all keys but a list of hotkeys, why not label the "Keys" tab as "Hotkeys" or "Keyboard shortcuts"? Putting those words in the manual will also allow a user to find them by searching. I would have never guessed to search for "keyboard map" to find what I think of as hotkeys.
Just FYI, teachers sometimes talk about "the curse of knowledge", which is a way of referring to the fact that once you know something very well, it's hard to imagine how someone that doesn't know it thinks about it or could be confused by it. I assume that most of the things that confuse me actually have explanations in the manual, it's just that I have no idea how to locate them in the manual. I'm mostly trying to give you feedback to help you understand how someone that does not know this program yet can get lost or misunderstand things to give you an opportunity to prevent confusion for future novice users.
I see. Maybe "Keyboard Shortcuts" would be clearer? Even if people don't ask what "keys" means, the problem is that no one ever searching for keyboard shortcuts would try to find them by searching for "keys" in the manual. The rename avoided the problem of people not knowing what "hotkeys" means, but created the less visible problem of people who do know not being able to find out how to see the list of hotkeys/shortcuts!
You're right! Maybe I searched for "shortcuts" but forgot to search for hotkeys. I gotta tell you though, when I looked at the "keys" page in the manual, I read the first sentence and my first thought was, "Where on Earth do I go to customize the keys page in DO?" Now that I have used DO for a few weeks and have learned more about the manual, I realize I can look above to see the breadcrumbs bar or the contents pane to see where the manual page is in the overall structure of the instructions, and then can figure out how to find that in DO. But it's not obvious to me (and probably some others). I guess I'm just giving you some feedback from a novice that it actually requires some training to even figure out how to use the manual. I hope you don't take this is contentious; I actually like DO a lot but if I was not very highly motivated to use it I probably would have given up on trying to figure out how to customize it earlier. Just trying to help you guys succeed in attracting more novice users.
I agree completely with 'bookstepper'. I do love D.O, but it is difficult to find information in both the manual and the forum. I am a trained and experienced technical writer, and I do U.I./U.X. consulting work for photo-related software companies. I know that inconsistent use of terminology is a major problem for people learning software, and is the root cause for many support requests.
I have been using DO for over a year, but have only recently been exploring its tremendous capabilities. However, while trying to figure things out and searching the manual using terminology found in the UI, there are often no search results, and that’s because different terminology is used in the manual. The terminology should match exactly!
Here’s one more example of different terminology used for the same thing: View, View Mode, Display Mode, File Display Modes. There is a dropdown list on the Toolbar titled ‘View’. I believe a user should be able to search the manual using the word ‘View’ and find ‘View’ listed in the results, yet ‘View’ is not found in the results. In the Index of the manual, ‘View’ is not listed either, but ‘View Modes’ is.
I do hope the developers, those who add or edit content in the Manual, and those who answer questions in the Forum will try to use terminology more consistently in the future.
I have (and am) doing that a lot.
Many questions have come up for me while discovering dopus, usually along the lines of 'hey, this or that would be a great feature if only it could be done'.
And than to find in the manual that it can indeed already be done.
It's very rare to find software that has such an extensive manual so easily available.
Hats off to those creating and maintaining it.
Surely terminology can be a bit ambiguous sometimes, but once you understand the philosophy behind dopus and the manual, it's not that hard to find answers and learn what you want to learn.
Just a related thought on the matter:
I did check if there was a 'Directory Opus for Dummies' book available. (these series are really great)
I have no idea if the revenues would be worth the effort to write it, but the two seem a very good match to me.
