HELP suggestions - What's New page

[Steve Fabian]

Once each change is fully documented, you can drop the syntax of new or enhanced features from the What's New page - unnecessary duplication; you already make it a link to the full documentation.

OTOH, in-page links from its top, or even from the title bar, to its major sections (possibly even before release, by using a prototype page) would speed up its usage. The "Conditional Expressions" page is a good example of the former, "Ranges" of the latter.
--
Steve

 

[rconn]

Once each change is fully documented, you can drop the syntax of new or enhanced features from the What's New page - unnecessary duplication; you already make it a link to the full documentation.

That's not really feasible -- the "What's New" section is linked from a lot of different places, including forum announcement messages, the JP Software web site, the JP Software newsletters, and several hundred third-party web sites. Removing most of the information there would irritate users and make finding the information a lot more tedious.

I'd need to create *two* "What's New" pages -- one that is displayed when in the help file, and a different one that is displayed when referenced from somewhere else. That seems like a lot of trouble to save 1 or 2K of file size.

 

[Steve Fabian]

From: rconn
| Originally Posted by Steve Fabian
|| Once each change is fully documented, you can drop the syntax of new
|| or enhanced features from the What's New page - unnecessary
|| duplication; you already make it a link to the full documentation.
|
| That's not really feasible -- the "What's New" section is linked from
| a lot of different places, including forum announcement messages, the
| JP Software web site, the JP Software newsletters, and several
| hundred third-party web sites. Removing most of the information there
| would irritate users and make finding the information a lot more
| tedious.
|
| I'd need to create *two* "What's New" pages -- one that is displayed
| when in the help file, and a different one that is displayed when
| referenced from somewhere else. That seems like a lot of trouble to
| save 1 or 2K of file size.


Ah! Since I've been using your products so long I never look elsewhere but the email from the forum and the HELP file. I was not aware that this page has so many links. Though I fail to see why anyone would look for the exact syntax of new features on the web, instead of their local HELP file, esp. searching through 3-rd party web sites. If they do not have the product, what difference does the syntax make? Barring the occasional user who is editing a batch file when at a location without the installed HELP... But they could not test their work!
--
Steve

 

[rconn]

>Though I fail to see why anyone would look for the exact
> syntax of new features on the web, instead of their local
> HELP file, esp. searching through 3-rd party web sites.

That's not what I'm referring to.

The newsletter and third-party web sites / blogs are saying things like
"Take Command v13 has been released; click here for details on the new
features." If that takes you to a page that only says "COPY and DEL and DIR
etc. etc. have been enhanced, click on these other 300 links to get
individual details, most of which you're not going to care about", it's not
going to inspire you to browse much further.