From technology to politics to video games; these are the random thoughts of a geek with too much time on his hands
Help me, help you
Published on May 14, 2008 By Zoomba In WinCustomize News

Last week I posted a little preview of the upcoming changes to the WC Help page.  The idea was to make the page easier to navigate, easier to read, more inviting/friendly and give us the ability to expand on the help resources we could provide on the page.  The old help page was just a bunch of link lists that weren't very organized and hadn't been updated in years.  The format of the page and the content itself basically ensured that virtually no one would use it.  We also didn't have a very good link between the Help page and the WinCustomize Wiki.

Today, I'm very happy to launch the first version of the new WinCustomize Help Center!

Please take a stroll through it.  Click the links and let me know:

  1. Any bugs on that page.
    Issues such as broken links, wacky formatting errors, images floating in the wrong spots etc. 
  2. Links you think should be added
    Am I missing a key tutorial?  Essential articles?  Items that you think should definitely be included but aren't currently.
  3. Any other misc feedback.

Please keep in mind that this is not a full-fledged help system with all sorts of fancy features.  It's just a really long HTML page with sections I'm hiding and unhiding depending on what you click on.  It is pretty easily expanded and modified though, so I can make reasonable additions fairly quickly.

Huge thanks to: andrew_ & nauticalpixel for all their CSS help, DoctorNick for fixing some annoying JS bugs, and the folks in #stardock for helping test early versions of this page.


Comments (Page 2)
2 Pages1 2 
on May 14, 2008
Not a problem Mike, it sometimes takes me several if not more times going through stuff until I notice everything.     
on May 14, 2008

I'm willing to add apps like DS or WinStep to the Help page, I just don't have the necessary information myself to write a section for them.  If people want to send me along the info, I'll be more than happy to add it

on May 14, 2008
One qualification though: I'm limiting it to apps that have a gallery here at WinCustomize. 
on May 14, 2008
This is really great!I plan on using this,more DX for dummies,please.   Will there a link to this page on Impulse? On the(?)button menu or a tab in Community? May help out new people,and introduce them to WC.  
on May 14, 2008
Looking good!
on May 14, 2008
How about an ObjectDesktop update page that shows the latest versions of what the ObjectDesktop components are. I've been seeing people compare there versions and there not always the same. My 2 cents.  
on May 14, 2008
I'd say "looking good" but uh.
on May 14, 2008
I'd say "looking good" but uh.


An explanation would be nice.
on May 14, 2008
Well, I presume you read the article.

And it mentions CSS. CSS, if you didn't know, controls and look and feel of a web site. An acronym for 'Cascading style sheets'.

From the article:
Huge thanks to: andrew_ & nauticalpixel for all their CSS help


Which means I, in part, designed the page.

Which means if I were to say it looks good, I would be patting myself on the back.

See?
on May 14, 2008
Help Page looking great so far!  
on May 14, 2008
And it mentions CSS. CSS, if you didn't know, controls and look and feel of a web site. An acronym for 'Cascading style sheets'.


I didn't know what CSS is,but I do suffer from CRS Nice job,nauticalpixel (and Andrew)  
on May 14, 2008
Which means I, in part, designed the page.

Which means if I were to say it looks good, I would be patting myself on the back.



Sorry I missed that part. Half way through reading I went straight to webpage. I have a habit of doing that.  BTW nice job.  
on May 14, 2008
Excellent layout. I like the fact that the different sections just show/hide instead of loading another page; much faster.

A few nitpicks, I guess:

There should be a link to Bebi's IRC tutorial to go along with the irc.stardock.com mention, so users understand how to get started.

Is it just me or does the 'close' button on the product pop up windows look....aesthetically off?


Other than the hiccups already mentioned by Shelby, it all looks good so far.  
2 Pages1 2