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Old 12-04-2007, 11:11 AM
dspady dspady is online now
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Join Date: 09-05-2005
Location: Alberta
Posts: 128
I think tjfern is right. The documentation is not readable for the individual who is not particularly computer programming or database literate. I use UR now, and do so because I like what it can do, even for a simple database. I used others, and at times wonder if I should go back, because their explanations of how to do something are more clear.
I learn a lot from the forums and people have been very helpful to me when I have had any problems, but it is nice to be able to go to the help file and have an unambiguous description of how to do something simple, or some sort of switch to make it easy to implement within UR, rather than going to an arcane folder to do something. (Kinook's instructions as to what to send when there is a problem is a good example of this.) Another one (I just looked this up as an example, has to deal with layouts. Much of what is said in the help file regarding layouts is fairly straightforward, although I still really don't know how to make layout changes and save them. An example of a, I think unnecessarily complex, request is the following:

Note: Customized layouts are stored in the user's application data folder (%APPDATA%\Kinook Software\Ultra Recall or C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Kinook Software\Ultra Recall). To reset all layouts to their defaults, exit Ultra Recall and delete all Layout*.dat files in the above folder.

Now, it is fairly straightforward, but it should not have to be done. Why can't I reset all layouts to their default within UR?

I think a big part of the problem is the use of jargon, which should be avoided if at all possible when creating help files. Assume intelligent, but ignorant, individuals will be using the program and proceed from there.

I think also, that UR might be more 'approachable' if there were several working examples of some of the more complex database uses of UR. This is asking a lot, however.

This is a bit of a rant, and for that I apologize. Basically, I want to say that I agree with tjfern.
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