Topics - DmitriPopov [ switch to compact view ]

Pages: prev • 1 [2]
6
Living Room / Humour And A "Serious" Product - Opinions Needed
« on: June 20, 2012, 12:39 PM »
Hello!

I develop and sell a help authoring tool - a kind of product that is by default "serious" and even boring. But as a micropreneur I should always think of making things different from my competitors.  8) Their sites are, you know, really serious and corporative, so I decided to do a little twist and create something offbeat on my website. So here we go, my "Tutorial":   :-[

http://www.helpinator.com/tutorial.html

But now I'm in doubt - is it funny at all? Or just harms my reputation without any good. :D Please take a look and tell me what was the first thing on your mind? Was it "Wow!", "WTF?!" or "I'd better close it right away!"  :)

7
Found Deals and Discounts / Helpinator (user manual and software documentation writing tool) Discounts
« on: June 20, 2012, 12:14 PM »
Hello!

I am the author of Helpinator (help authoring tool). Just a couple of links to show what it's about:
Informal features review: https://www.helpinator.com/blog/2019/09/18/recommended-reading/
Story of Helpinator on my blog: https://www.dmitripopov.com/why-i-like-what-i-created-and-hopefully-you-will-like-it-too-part-1/
Tour: http://www.helpinator.com/helpinator.html
Benefits: http://www.helpinator.com/benefits.html


UPD 2019/12/24: 2-day BitsDuJour sale, lifetime license for the price of a yearly subscription: https://www.bitsdujour.com/software/helpinator/saf=510203

8
Living Room / Looking for people to follow on Twitter
« on: May 08, 2012, 06:02 AM »
Hello, everybody!

I never believed that Twitter will become so big, and for years I just avoided it. But now it seems to me that I am missing something and a lot of things go by just because I'm not involved. I tried to browse and search for people to follow, but there are TONS of information and I quickly get tired choosing right people - some accounts are long dead, other post things not related to their interests, or you need to follow those crazy shortlinks before you figure out what the tweet was about... Insanely ineffective. And I decided to go another way - just call for people with similar interests in a place more compatible with my brainware.

So, if you are living active Twitter life, interested in Delphi/C#/ASP.NET/Android programming and microISV business / web startups, then follow me and I'll follow you back, or post a link to your twitter account here in case you want other donationcoders to follow you.

https://twitter.com/#!/DmitriPopov

In case you know someone I should definitely follow, post them too.

9
Developer's Corner / Ribbon UI - is it really THAT good?
« on: November 29, 2011, 12:45 AM »
Hello, everybody!

As you might know I develop and sell a help authoring tool targeted at software developers that document their creations themselves (tech writers usually use more complicated and expensive tools).

The big problem I have right now is what UI concept I should follow. For years my tool had "classic" text processor UI, defined by MS Word versions prior to 2007. But then it was switched to the Ribbon (which I personally hate a lot) and it became a new standard for word processors. Users of my program are divided almost equally into 2 groups - those who like classic UI and say that it is my competitive advantage, and the other group that says they miss Ribbon very much.

I'm afraid that absence of Ribbon becomes a more significant disadvantage over time, because it becomes more and more popular and widespread thing. Redesigning UI will take a lot of time and I'm not sure right now that it will pay back.

So, what do you think? I know, it's a controversial thing, but I just need to hear what other developers think.

10
Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Helpinator 3.5 - feedback required
« on: August 26, 2011, 09:06 AM »
Hello everyone!

Short intro: Helpinator is a single source / multi-language/ multi-format help authoring tool. And it is my creation :)

In the new release we've added a new feature called "Step-by-step Guides". Generally it's a tool to create tutorials from images in Helpinator project "Image library". Each step has assigned image, title and textual description. When you compile CHM/Web help embedded guide turns into a Javascript slideshow and in PDF/RTF mode - into a sequence of images with titles and descriptions. Here's our blog post about this feature:

http://www.helpinator.com/blog/2011/08/26/step-by-step-guides/

Main ideas:
1. Explaining even complex actions becomes simple when you split it into steps and illustrate with annotated images and little text.
2. Guide exports into all supported formats without any actions from user side.

Are we going in the right direction? Did we miss something important? I'll be glad to hear from you, even hard criticism :)

Pages: prev • 1 [2]
Go to full version