As regular Winstep users know, Winstep was one of the few (if not the only) Windows customization companies that featured a User Guide for their applications - and a very detailed one too, with over a hundred pages.

This old User Guide was split in two parts, one for WorkShelf, which you can still find here, and one for NextSTART, which you can find here.

Then, last year, Winstep applications went through an enormous and time consuming transformation to add multi-language support and simplify, modernize and re-organize the whole User Interface.

Unfortunately this also meant that the old User Guide became obsolete.

With existing resources being fully focused on improving the applications themselves, no resources were left for updating the User Guide (which would be, in itself, a mammoth task as well). As a result, clicking the Help button in the Preferences screen of Winstep applications (except the free Nexus version, which has its own User Guide) currently takes users to the Winstep Xtreme and Nexus Ultimate FAQ pages on the Winstep web site.

This is, obviously, a temporary measure.

When Winstep partnered with Proxma AG to sell Winstep software in the retail stores of German speaking countries, the German company used some of its resources to create a very detailed and high-quality booklet, based on the original User Guide for Winstep Xtreme and Nexus Ultimate. This booklet ships with the retail box of Winstep Xtreme in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which you can see here (note that colors are a bit off - too greenish - because the original image is CMYK instead of RGB):



They did a wonderful job with both the box and the booklet.

Now, the source of this booklet is an indexed PDF file, which you can read here (unfortunately it's in German). It is also a very heavy file (nearly 9 MB).

Anyway, I liked the quality of the booklet so much (as I'm sure you will if you click the link above) that I decided to have it translated to English and eat the costs.

Having it translated to English in an editable format will also mean that, from now on, I will be able to add chapters to it as new features are added to the applications (as opposed to having to write the whole thing from scratch).

Deadline for delivery of the translated 25,000 words booklet is February 21st, so the good news is that we're nearly there.

Now, there is a problem: as I mentioned, the booklet which will become the new User Guide is a very heavy PDF file. With each language requiring a separate booklet, the English and German versions alone add up to 18 MB - clearly the booklets cannot ship with the applications themselves, it's simply not pheasible, especially if more languages are to be added in the future.

The alternative would be to offer the booklets as online help - but, personaly, I hate online help. I like to have a local copy which I can refer to when I am offline (which, these days, is nearly never, but still...)

So I decided to come up with an hybrid scheme: the first time you click on the Help button in the Preferences screen of a Winstep application, you will be taken to a special page on the Winstep web site. From there, you have two choices: either read the PDF User Guide online, or download a User Guide installer. The latter will install the User Guide on your PC so that, the next time you click on the Help button, the local copy of the User Guide opens instead of the online version.

What do you think?

The option sounds good. I like the help manuals local too but I imagine a lot of people would like online.

I'm wondering if an prompt would be good at installation, either to provide the option to download right then or let people know it's online. It might avoid some frustration the first time a person looks for it (and might already be a little frustrated).

Well, I assume that users will ALWAYS click first on the Help button in Preferences when they need help before setting off to look for a User Guide on their hard drives.

Don't want to add another prompt to installation, as it is already too busy (Tip of the Day, Check for Updates, etc...). This way the User Guide (and what to do with it) will only be 'in your face' when you actually need it (hope I'm explaining myself correctly).

Well ya, you'd hope so. I was thinking more in terms of clicking on the help button the first time when someone might already be a little testy and when it was a bad time to hit the web for whatever reason. Admittedly my internet connection at times appears to be powered by gerbils

Not a big deal to me, just a thought. I understand not wanting another installation prompt.

Great looking box to match a great product!

1. Are there any plans to have it released in stores in the U.S or other English speaking countries?

2. Will the English version and other guides have an auto-update or update prompt feature so the user will be notified when you've updated the guide?

you could always add a button to the main preferences page for workshelf and nextstart to. you could have it right under the version number. right now if i should get stuck on something i typically keep playing with the settings or i google it. with the work you've done on the programs over the last year i make coming to the source a last resort.

Thanks.



Not unless a distributor in the US comes forward.



Good question, but I would say I'll have to come up with something regarding that.

I tend to like to download any available manuals when I download the product. Not as the same package, but download both packages then. It's hard to describe the rage caused by hitting help because things have gone squirrely and then being told that you have a 9MB download to look forward to. When what you are trying to figure out is why your internet connection is acting up. Was it that odd setting in the network widget you just tried?

So for me, having a download link for the PDF right next to the download for the software kit would be ideal.

I would agree as far as having a direct link known about the manual right next to the product, so far as to even say have a download page landing point when someone goes to download the demo/full product so they see the second link with the help guide (I'd actually recommend the extra step in the installation imo, its not that much more on the customers end to go through, would save you a lot of headaches on customer support assuming its read , but obviously a little more for you to code in though but I think the benefits outweigh the cost esp. since you are putting in a cost there, might as well make sure people are using it as best as possible).

On a side note I got a ghetto translation done (read: not professional job done with software resources I have, but freeware resources ). Obviously it would be a VERY rough around the edges translation, and I only could do it as converted to text, but if you would happen to want to see it for any reason I have that ( <-- addressed to admin, will not share this with anyone else without explicit admin permission).

Looking forward to seeing the final product

As you know, the Download buttons on the Winstep web site re-direct to Cnet's Download.com. Furthermore, there is no space on the rectangular box that holds the Download button to add a description and a second button to the User Guides.

What I will do is add links to the gray right side panel (as well as to the Support page), in conjuction with the method I refered above (i.e.; if the User Guide is not installed, clicking the Help button will open a web page from where you can either download an install file for the User Guide or read it online).

In addition, just got news that the translation to English has been completed and is now with the proof-reader - so we're stil on for having the new User Guide at the end of this month.

Yay!

And it's here!

You can read the preliminary version (still with German images and the Proxma logo) HERE.

Little Typo? on page 5 under 1.1.1 Transform Your Desktop



Should't that be individually adaptable MENUS for Windows?

Thanks, there are lots of other mistakes.

Anyway, I just tried editing the file with Adobe Acrobat (which I had never used before) and the whole thing is a NIGHTMARE! Absolutely nothing is intuitive and the thing is (from my beginner's perspective) so hard to edit, even to make minor changes such as replacing one word with another, that I am seriously considering going back to the CHM Help file format.

Anyone here has any experience with Adobe Acrobat Pro?