Hello, Mark. This is not a specific comment about Finale's online help, but if MM wants to hit a homerun with online documentation they'll have to get a whole lot better than they are now, or indeed that any program I know of is now.
The only truly successful online help I've ever used was the online help in Microsoft Visual Basic 4 and (especially) 5. Microsoft ruined it when they went to the MSDN Help model in VB6, and they have continued with that model in later Visual Studio versions with only moderate improvement. Successful online documentation must be so easy to use and so successful at providing, ahem, help, that users will go there out of second nature. There should be a Help key (in VB it is F1). Pressing the help key should pop useful information about the exact dbx and exact field within the dbx where my cursor is positioned. The key word here is *useful*. If you are merely looking at ways to improve the existing html or PDF help, I think you are wasting your resources. If you are gonna mess with it at all, do it right. Make it so easy and so useful and so specific to what I am doing *right now* that even I will want to rtfm. On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 10:14 AM, Johnson, Mark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Greetings SHSU list subscribers, I'm Mark Johnson, and I am responsible for > all of MakeMusic's notation documentation resources including the User > Manual, Installation and Tutorials guide, QuickStart Videos, and other > materials. > > We are currently conducting a review of all of these materials to determine > where gaps exist between user need in understanding and using the software > and existing help resources. Our goal is to determine which users do not find > the help they need, why, and how these resources can best be improved. > > In the interest of better Finale help, and because SHSU members represent a > sample of invested Finale users, I decided this would be an appropriate place > to solicit feedback. > > I encourage any comments you have, but especially appreciate a description of > your most negative experiences with the Finale help resources and perhaps any > ideas regarding its improvement. > > Of course, the end goal is an overall Finale package that is more useful and > intuitive, and documentation is one piece of that puzzle. I hope you will > contribute your experience to help make Finale better for all of us. > > Sincerely, > Mark > > > Mark Johnson > Documentation Editor > MakeMusic, Inc > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
