On Monday, July 12, 2004 @ 1:34:35 PM, Allister Jenks wrote: [snips]
MB>> In defense of RitLabs: the improvements that are being made in The MB>> Bat! are coming along so rapidly that any Help file would soon be MB>> obsolete. I consider that I am running an obsolete version, and I have MB>> the latest Full Release. Allister> Too rapidly then. Documentation is part of a product. Let's face it, Allister> how many newcomers would stick with it if this list suddenly Allister> disappeared? For that matter, how many longer term users would stick Allister> with it? There's no doubt that I would not have stuck with the program without this list. The help file is pretty useless, I've found - it will say things like "do THIS with THAT", but searching on either THIS or THAT either won't show them in the help (apart from the screen you were just in), or won't tell you how to access them from the program. (Sorry for the complete lack of detail there, but it's been a while since I was chasing something to change or do, as my only real current changes are with filters, as you well know :-) MB>> But I encourage you to stay with us. The Bat! is very likely the best MB>> e-mail program available today. Allister> All the more reason to tell people how to use it so they can *see* how Allister> good it is. I am willing to bet that a large proportion of users would Allister> use far more features if they knew they existed and/or how to use them. No doubt. Allister> If people aren't using these wonderful features then they're a waste of Allister> the programmers' time. Agreed. MB>> Everyone is here to help you! Allister> Yes, and the ambulance is waiting at the bottom of the cliff. Good summary, really. To maintain growth (and thus remain viable), market share has to be a consideration, and making the program difficult to access actively works against that. Not that Agent has moved on in any meaningful way in the last few years, but one thing it did have when it started out, and one of the reasons that a lot of people used it, was that it had a well-written helpfile that actually helped. TheBat! is difficult to recommend to people who would clearly be better off using it than Outlook (ie everyone) or some other email clients because of the expected amount of followup work required because it does not set things out in a usable manner or explain things clearly in the helpfile. Don't get me wrong, I like the program a lot, but there are areas where significant improvements could (and should) be made. -- cheers, Mic (reply address works) Don't give up kissing Princes; sooner or later one will turn into a frog. ________________________________________________ Current version is 2.11.02 | 'Using TBUDL' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
