The second important user assistance effort should be downloadable tutorials covering a variety of topics, and available from the DEVONtechnologies Web site. (Even here there can be problems, because answers to questions that were appropriate at the time may now be incorrect because of terminology or feature changes.) The forum is very active and provides users an opportunity to ask questions and discuss features and tricks. The first is already in place, the user forum. Meanwhile, there are two other ways DEVONtechnologies can help users. I don’t think I’d like the job of writing complete user documentation for DEVONthink. That was easy – the application was a one-time development effort. Many years ago, I wrote the user manual for a useful little Apple II database program put out by Silicon Valley Systems. Should DEVONtechnologies devote more resources to user manual and help documentation? Yes – certainly in the long run – but that’s a daunting task, especially as the application will continue rapid development and changes. So DEVONthink itself is becoming one of the most powerful tools available on the Macintosh (or any other platform, I would argue), but the existing user documentation doesn’t give new users clues as to how to approach that power. The developers are, quite properly, putting their resources almost exclusively into application development, not the user documentation. It’s not surprising that the most consistent thread of comments about DEVONthink on the user forum is about inadequate documentation, especially the kind of documentation that helps users understand what they could do using DEVONthink, and how to attain their personal objectives for the application.ĭEVONtechnologies is a small firm. For experienced users, Version History notes are often the best references for new or changed features, but that’s a terrible source of information for less experienced users. The user guide/help/reference materials for DEVONthink are spotty at best, incomplete, and even wrong in cases where application development has resulted in changes from documented information. it could help fill the gap while you prepare the new doc, and could be generated much less time than new user doc. In the meantime, perhaps you guys could put together a tutorial to help drive people down the learning curve, teaching them the basics of what this great app does.
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