Help needed urgent: Usability of online help

Hi,

I wish to request all the group members to help me in my study about
the usability of online helps. Could you please let me know about the
problems and concerns you face while working with any online help,
especially Solidworks help?
It would help if you could mail me your feedback with respect to the
Navigation, Language, References (See Also links, Reference, Example,
and TIP topics), ToC, amount of information available in the help
topics, Search functionality available in the online/context-sensitive
help and so on.

In short, youe feedback can be a major contribution in my study about
comparing the online/context-sensitive help for the CAD tools like
Solidworks, Autodesk,Pro/E, and so on. If you could suggest me the
factors that affects the usability of any online help, or the factors
that can be incorporated to improve the ease of use of any online
help.

Hope to get your support and lot of suggestions. Awaiting for the
feedback avalanche.
--
Regards,
N i r a j G o r d e
Technical Writer
Life is a different teacher. It does not teach the lesson first and
then take the exam.... it takes the exam first and then teaches the
lesson

 

Having a paper copy of the manual is probably the biggest single thing
that could be done to improve help.

TOP

 

Wholeheartedly concur.
===========================================================================
Chris

 

"Could you please let me know about the problems and concerns you face
while working with any online help, especially Solidworks help?"

Before I make the effort to document some of the massive problems with
SolidWorks online help are you going to be one of the people
responsible for improving it?

 

Being able to search it is nice .. some of the early fancy
on-line stuff for some systems seemed unsearchable by
the users due to the format (graphics IIRC) used.
Complex searches using multiple keywords & conditionals
would be nice too.

 

What business is it of yours?
You are not even a user & don't seem to even know what it's
intended for.

Not that you could read the OP's question anyway.
That would need advanced (3rd grade +) reading
comprehension skills.

 

"Having a paper copy of the manual is probably the biggest single
thing that could be done to improve help."

Having a paper copy of the SolidWorks 2007 manual would make no
difference as the concepts taught in the SolidWorks 2007 manual are
fundamentally wrong.

 

How refreshing !!!

Is it about AutoCAD?

[

[

So it's what you suggest?

Lathes have things that spin the work about.

But it will be better for him than a breadbox, right?

Such as ones that can program lathes?

"I have never used it"
"This package doesn't do lathe work"

MasterCAM is full 5 axes IIRC ...

By being "3 + 2" axes?

Such as being 5 axes?

The nut holding the handwheel & doing Zen?

LOL ... "This package doesn't do lathe work" "I have never used it"
]

 

Jon,

I tink your right about everything you say, and everyone else is wrong.

Please tell me why you tink the "concepts taught in the SolidWorks 2007
manual are fundamentaly wrong". I think I can learn something important
here.

Daisy.

 

ROFLMAO

Thanks,
Tom

 

Despite jb's consistent fog, he does raise inneresting points.

There is an interesting correlation, in my mind, between the shoddiness of
support/documentation and the lack of printed manuals.
Printed manuals seem to reflect a different time, a different zeitgeist, a
less-ferocious fucking of the consumer.
A time when companies--or at least someone IN the company-- took some
aesthetic pride in their product.

Now, it's almost as if so-called online help, help files etc. are a "get off
my corporate back" bone, a kind of Bally's
pay-fer-yer-membership-but-try-not-to-show-up deal.
I belonged to a Bally's some time ago where they refused to supply hot water
in the locker rooms/showers.
Man, if dat wadn't a message of Don't bother to show up, I don't know what
is.

A lack of accountability--" it's yer fukn problem".
The New Disposable-ness.

It seems that the ephemeral-ness of 0's and 1's, vs the tangibility of
printed copy, reflects in the Corporation-Consumer relationship.
From the Corporation's pov, this ephemerality manifests as Catch us iffin
you can--after yer account is debited, of course.

0's and 1's seem to make the notion of a historical *legacy* largely
irrelevant.
Oh, how I pine for Lotus 123 Xywrite et al--if nothing else, for the
documentation!

Altho, it is also true that in jb's case, good printed documentation would
be casting pearls before swine, and thusly an utter waste of
trees/pulp/glue/pigment.
--
------
Mr. P.V.'d (formerly Droll Troll), Yonkers, NY

Stop Corruption in Congress & Send the Ultimate Message:
Absolutely Vote, but NOT for a Democrat or a Republican.
Ending Corruption in Congress is the *Single Best Way*
to Materially Improve Your Family's Life.
The Solution is so simple--and inexpensive!

entropic3.14decay at optonline2.718 dot net; remove pi and e to reply--ie,
all d'numbuhs

 

PV, I agree. I like a printed manual in ENGLISH, not some
translated from the Japanese via Germany.

Printed manuals are cool cause you can make notes, dog ear
the pages, and put those little sticky things on pages.

Best,
Steve


--
Regards,
Steve Saling
aka The Garlic Dude ©
Gilroy, CA
The Garlic Capital of The World
http://tinyurl.com/2avg58

 

Steve,

The SolidWorks on-line manual that comes with SolidWorks 2007 is
completely fucking worthless. If you want quality manuals written by
SolidWorks Corp. you have convince a SolidWorks VAR to sell them to
you or you have to buy them on E-Bay. These books are what SolidWorks
VAR's use in their overpriced training classes.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Set-of-Official...oryZ3771QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Jon, If I learned SolidWorks then I'd have to look for
something to replace my Smurfcam.

I bought an item on ebay, stereo speakers, and the guy also
had a Saab 900 that he was selling for parts and he lived in
Phoenix.

You starting to adjust to San Diego. Know your way around a
little better?

Best,
Steve


--
Regards,
Steve Saling
aka The Garlic Dude ©
Gilroy, CA
The Garlic Capital of The World
http://tinyurl.com/2avg58

 

Steve,

"You starting to adjust to San Diego."

All I do is work and study. I'm trying to finish The SolidWorks Bible
which is long and at times boring. To make matters worse it's poorly
organized. However the content is just superb! I'm at page 400 with
600 more pages to go. Thank God I've got some decent video training
that I'm watching to break it up. SolidWorks has changed so much since
I've been away from it and I feel like I'm really far behind.

Had two calls from old clients in Phoenix this week that want me to
take their old 2D prints and use SolidWorks to create weldments.

"Know your way around a little better?"

Nope... but Michele and I went to Cardiff by the Sea which I really
liked. The weather is nice everyday now after the morning marine layer
burns off.

"Jon, If I learned SolidWorks then I'd have to look for something to
replace my Smurfcam."

You would be surprised how many people can draw parts in SolidWorks
and yet have no fucking clue what they are doing. It takes a lot of
effort to really understand SolidWorks.

 

Didn't stop you from posing as an expert all these years.

Your CAD 12 step program, admit you don't have a fucking clue so you
can move forward and put forth the effort to learn.

Tom

 

Steve,

San Diego, Phoenix it's all the same thing... work, study, work,
study.

Only difference is more automotive / motorsports machining and design
here and better equipment.

Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA

 

Take a class on how to read maps.
Insist on videos <G>.

 

They expect minimal reading comprehension & a basic
conceptual background, do they?

 

Yeah, for as long as it lasts.

I guess it's ok to get palsy-walsy on usenet with the likes of jb, but when
he loses his current job and apt. in San Diego and has to flee the city, and
asks to crash at YOUR place, just do what teachers tell their students re
drugs:
Just Say No.
You'll thank me later.
--
------
Mr. P.V.'d (formerly Droll Troll), Yonkers, NY

Stop Corruption in Congress & Send the Ultimate Message:
Absolutely Vote, but NOT for a Democrat or a Republican.
Ending Corruption in Congress is the *Single Best Way*
to Materially Improve Your Family's Life.
The Solution is so simple--and inexpensive!

entropic3.14decay at optonline2.718 dot net; remove pi and e to reply--ie,
all d'numbuhs