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The lazy user's guilt

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iphigenie:
I still feel guilty a bit when I have good things (or software) and dont use them properly at all. It seems a shame, and it seems unfair to whoever made the things...

But then I am also a person who will buy something (games, books, software etc.) just because it deserves to be supported, even if I dont really need it at this time - so feeling bad for something i dont use enough is just an extension of that

Interestingly enough I dont feel anywhere near as bad for say a web app I might have signed up and not used. Maybe cause there are so many I signed up for and never used... Although I have paid/registered on sites sometimes before I knew whether I would really use them or not, just because the concept needed support (here is an example, i donated before I had actually used any of the software... caught up since!)

iphigenie:
PS: might be an idea to split out my vague intro about the launcher somewhere else if it is of interest

BrokenNails:
Warning! Rambling stream of consciousness ahead!  :o

For any non-trivial piece of software I can't emphasize enough what a good "feature tutorial" (video or static) can do for a user. I don't mean something along the lines of "And here's how you add a new task, here's how you delete a task, here's how you print, etc" - that's what help documentation is for. I'm talking about tutorials/demos which exist purely to show what cool things the application can do. Stuff that makes you think "Hey, that would be really useful! I need that software!", or "Wow, I didn't realise I could do that with it - I need to configure my instance to do that too!".

Directory Opus was a particularly good example - a bajillion features, only 1% of which most users get to experience "out of the box". Unless you've experienced other explorer replacements before you could be satisfied with the fact that you now have a tabbed interface and leave it at that. But then you read sites like this http://www.pretentiousname.com/opus/ which show you what "real world" tasks can be done with it, and demonstrate features you wouldn't have been aware of unless you'd trawled through the massive manual (yeah, good luck!).  ;D

The flash tutorials that many sites now offer are an incredibly useful tool in choosing software. Many times I've read a text description of a feature or a bulletpointed feature list and thought "Mmm, so what?", but watching a video tutorial demonstrating an actual, real life problem being solved turned the light bulb on above my head.

I too had AutoHotkey installed for a while and barely used it. I never could figure out what problem I wanted it to solve! It was only after I saw a couple of simple examples on lifehacker.com of (again) real world tasks being automated that I saw its benefit. Using those little scripts time and again finally got me in the habit of recognising opportunities for AHK's magic...  :)

I'm not sure if this post is on topic anymore (or if it ever was) but it kinda made sense in my head! I guess what I'm trying to say is that a lot of software appeals to me in the sense that it solves a particular problem for me (ie why I originally decided to get it), but that I don't then put in the time to investigate all the other things it can do unless 'someone' (web/blog post, video/static tutorial) demonstrates a feature in a real world setting that I can identify with ie solving a problem I face (possibly one I didn't know I had!).  ;D

iphigenie:
That's sooo true -  :Thmbsup:

many independent shareware authors don't seem to have the time to both code and create helpful documentation or clips (many of the great tools I have have sub adequate help or documentation). That's quite normal, but maybe they should harness some of their users, ask their registered users to tell of their favorite features or tasks, or give a rebate to people who write an entry or make a video about a feature or add on etc. (with certain quality requirements)

BrokenNails:
I'm fairly certain that Nudel (the guy who produced the "Intro to Directory Opus" site) isn't in anyway affiliated with the makers of DOpus. He's just a mad keen user that wanted to "share the joy"!  :)

One can only imagine how many sales are a direct result of his efforts...

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