Hi Oleg
Dont know if you remember me but i waqs playing around with OLE Pro quite heavily earlier this year....( you used to get emails from me every other other day of the ;-}.......)
Well been out of circulation but now back in the popluation again. See we are now up to 3.5. WOW
Well as i have said so many many times earlier this year thiere is no doubt that OLP is a powerful product but there is so much power under the hood it really *needs* a nice guide to use it....
Has any thing happened along these lines yet ?
Regards
Mark
Dont know if you remember me but i waqs playing around with OLE Pro quite heavily earlier this year....( you used to get emails from me every other other day of the ;-}.......)
Well been out of circulation but now back in the popluation again. See we are now up to 3.5. WOW
Well as i have said so many many times earlier this year thiere is no doubt that OLP is a powerful product but there is so much power under the hood it really *needs* a nice guide to use it....
Has any thing happened along these lines yet ?
Regards
Mark
Sorry, no. I think, it would be better to go through the forums and extract useful messages to a kind of FAQ. I just need someone to help me with this.
Best regards,
Oleg Chernavin
MP Staff
Best regards,
Oleg Chernavin
MP Staff
Oleg,
I like to augment the last user`s comment.
As a user of Offline for about five years, the lack of decent documentation has been a continual annoyance and frustration for me. Even having one of your staff categorize the answers would be an improvement, but a good use of someone`s staff time would be to produce usable on-line documentation. It would probably save a lot of time in the long run.
What exists currently deserves the name "hacker`s documentation". That is, documentation for people who like to play and experiment.
Trying to find something useful in the forum takes a lot of time, both customer time and your time. Currently, I`m trying to find something that would help me in filtering but I can`t even find something as elementary as distinguishing what part of the URL is considered to be directory and what part is considered to be file.
For example
http://discussions.pbs.org/viewforum.pbs?f=5
http://discussions.pbs.org/viewtopic.pbs?t=109&start=240&sid=2e65ed7d889e9f6ec794b87c7b886434
the examples in the help files do not deal with this type of situation and coming to the forums requires a lot to time and patience to find the treatment of the question.
Most times I have to try a few experiments to find out what this or that does. That annoys me, for I know a good user guide would make experimentation unnecessary.
I like to augment the last user`s comment.
As a user of Offline for about five years, the lack of decent documentation has been a continual annoyance and frustration for me. Even having one of your staff categorize the answers would be an improvement, but a good use of someone`s staff time would be to produce usable on-line documentation. It would probably save a lot of time in the long run.
What exists currently deserves the name "hacker`s documentation". That is, documentation for people who like to play and experiment.
Trying to find something useful in the forum takes a lot of time, both customer time and your time. Currently, I`m trying to find something that would help me in filtering but I can`t even find something as elementary as distinguishing what part of the URL is considered to be directory and what part is considered to be file.
For example
http://discussions.pbs.org/viewforum.pbs?f=5
http://discussions.pbs.org/viewtopic.pbs?t=109&start=240&sid=2e65ed7d889e9f6ec794b87c7b886434
the examples in the help files do not deal with this type of situation and coming to the forums requires a lot to time and patience to find the treatment of the question.
Most times I have to try a few experiments to find out what this or that does. That annoys me, for I know a good user guide would make experimentation unnecessary.
> Trying to find something useful in the forum takes a lot of time,
I doubt that it would really make a big difference if one would extract useful messages to a kind of FAQ. Most questions are very special.
I would recommend to download the forum (see: http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpSupport_User_Forums_Message.asp?id=6195 ) and to use a good search tool (e.g. dtsearch, or try to find a freeware - perhaps Filehand Search 2.1(?)) as long as the online search function is too limited. ;-)
> I`m trying to find something that would help me in filtering but I can`t even find something as elementary as distinguishing what part of the URL is considered to be directory and what part is considered to be file.
>
> For example
>
> http://discussions.pbs.org/viewforum.pbs?f=5
>
> http://discussions.pbs.org/viewtopic.pbs?t=109&start=240&sid=2e65ed7d889e9f6ec794b87c7b886434
>
> the examples in the help files do not deal with this type of situation
Not? What about the chapter "Advanced features - Fine-tunig downloads using Project URL Filters".
Or: "Advanced features - Using URL Macros":
The support of URL Macros in URL Filters allows you to create universal templates for certain Web sites. A new set of macros is introduced for this purpose:
{:server} inserts the starting server name from the URLs field. For example, www.site.com
{:dir} inserts the starting server name from the URLs field. For example, /directory/sub/
{:filename} inserts the starting server name from the URLs field. For example, file.asp?param
Here you are able to find a similar example (although it might be a little bit harder to find(?)
OK:
http://discussions.pbs.org/viewforum.pbs?f=5
http:// - the protocol
discussions.pbs.org - the server
viewforum.pbs?f=5 - the filename of the dynamic page
pbs is the extension; ?f=5 is the argument.
(But I think, the real extension should be php; they are just playing around with the extension ;-)
So you have to put pbs to the File Filters - Text - Extensions list or enable File Filters - Others, adjust the other settings and download the site as usual.
> Most times I have to try a few experiments to find out what this or that does. That annoys me, for I know a good user guide would make experimentation unnecessary.
I doubt that the help file is really *so* bad. I think, if you have really carefully read the whole manual, you should be able to download nearly all Web sites (that Offline Explorer is able to download). And when it is really too hard, come here and ask your questions. ;-)
JM2C
I doubt that it would really make a big difference if one would extract useful messages to a kind of FAQ. Most questions are very special.
I would recommend to download the forum (see: http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpSupport_User_Forums_Message.asp?id=6195 ) and to use a good search tool (e.g. dtsearch, or try to find a freeware - perhaps Filehand Search 2.1(?)) as long as the online search function is too limited. ;-)
> I`m trying to find something that would help me in filtering but I can`t even find something as elementary as distinguishing what part of the URL is considered to be directory and what part is considered to be file.
>
> For example
>
> http://discussions.pbs.org/viewforum.pbs?f=5
>
> http://discussions.pbs.org/viewtopic.pbs?t=109&start=240&sid=2e65ed7d889e9f6ec794b87c7b886434
>
> the examples in the help files do not deal with this type of situation
Not? What about the chapter "Advanced features - Fine-tunig downloads using Project URL Filters".
Or: "Advanced features - Using URL Macros":
The support of URL Macros in URL Filters allows you to create universal templates for certain Web sites. A new set of macros is introduced for this purpose:
{:server} inserts the starting server name from the URLs field. For example, www.site.com
{:dir} inserts the starting server name from the URLs field. For example, /directory/sub/
{:filename} inserts the starting server name from the URLs field. For example, file.asp?param
Here you are able to find a similar example (although it might be a little bit harder to find(?)
OK:
http://discussions.pbs.org/viewforum.pbs?f=5
http:// - the protocol
discussions.pbs.org - the server
viewforum.pbs?f=5 - the filename of the dynamic page
pbs is the extension; ?f=5 is the argument.
(But I think, the real extension should be php; they are just playing around with the extension ;-)
So you have to put pbs to the File Filters - Text - Extensions list or enable File Filters - Others, adjust the other settings and download the site as usual.
> Most times I have to try a few experiments to find out what this or that does. That annoys me, for I know a good user guide would make experimentation unnecessary.
I doubt that the help file is really *so* bad. I think, if you have really carefully read the whole manual, you should be able to download nearly all Web sites (that Offline Explorer is able to download). And when it is really too hard, come here and ask your questions. ;-)
JM2C
Oh, how funny. ;-)
I see, of course this part has to be corrected in the help file:
{:server} inserts the starting server name from the URLs field. For example, www.site.com
{:dir} inserts the starting server name from the URLs field. For example, /directory/sub/
{:filename} inserts the starting server name from the URLs field. For example, file.asp?param
This should be:
{:server} inserts the starting server name from the URLs field. For example, www.site.com
{:dir} inserts the starting directory name from the URLs field. For example, /directory/sub/
{:filename} inserts the starting filename from the URLs field. For example, file.asp?param
Nobody is perfect. ;-)
I see, of course this part has to be corrected in the help file:
{:server} inserts the starting server name from the URLs field. For example, www.site.com
{:dir} inserts the starting server name from the URLs field. For example, /directory/sub/
{:filename} inserts the starting server name from the URLs field. For example, file.asp?param
This should be:
{:server} inserts the starting server name from the URLs field. For example, www.site.com
{:dir} inserts the starting directory name from the URLs field. For example, /directory/sub/
{:filename} inserts the starting filename from the URLs field. For example, file.asp?param
Nobody is perfect. ;-)
Thank you for both finding the typo and for the comments about the lack of the information on the site and in the Help file.
Wayne,
What about the following - could you make a list of questions that bother you quite often and which are hard to find (or even impossible) in the Help file? I would make detailed answers to them and this will be like a FAQ. You would review my answers and if they should be corrected or made more detailed, I will do that.
This way you will help me a lot with minimum efforts on your side. Also, your help is invaluable, because you look at the questions from the user`s side. It is hard for me to make the good documentation, because I am on another side. :-)
Thank you!
Oleg.
Wayne,
What about the following - could you make a list of questions that bother you quite often and which are hard to find (or even impossible) in the Help file? I would make detailed answers to them and this will be like a FAQ. You would review my answers and if they should be corrected or made more detailed, I will do that.
This way you will help me a lot with minimum efforts on your side. Also, your help is invaluable, because you look at the questions from the user`s side. It is hard for me to make the good documentation, because I am on another side. :-)
Thank you!
Oleg.