Help files not much help: Creo/Pro

Done...

It is becoming obvious that help for Creo 1.0 and 2.0 is seriously lacking. Many of the references are still using WF references and menu terminology. I have spent days trying to understand something that is right there in front of me only because I tried using the help system that was steering me into oblivion. I recommend a task force dedicated to the help system with full visibility and cooperation of the user community. This effort should provide an easy process to log a problem/oversight and a system providing feedback to the submission acknowledgement. The biggest boost to upgrading the help system must come from the PTC tech support system. When a call is placed regarding insufficient or inaccurate help data, there must be a mandate to log these issues with this task force. Help is the UI to the application. Figures, examples and verbose discussions have waned into obscurity. A help system should be the front line for the creative process by maintaining perspective and momentum only followed by product support where the help system is insufficient. This idea is open to changes by anyone.

link: Help Document Task Force: Creo updates

Maybe I've been posting too much and I'm going a little batty... but this Help Documentation thing really strikes a nerve with me.

I have some of the old paper books... and they were quite good. Not only did you get a description of the various commands, but you got copious amounts of examples. In fact, there were pictures, and mini step-by-step tutorials throughout the books.

When PTC discontinued delivering the books, I was disappointed. I realize they were costly to produce... but they were a ready source of information. You could keep them open on your desk as you worked. Unless you have dual monitors, working in Creo or Pro/E with a webpage open is really tough. Obviously I was forced to adapt.

I have never much cared for the HTML help files included with Wildfire or Creo. But now, they've gotten really really bad. It seems like ALL of the examples have been stripped out. Were I a cynical person, I'd say this was done on purpose in hopes that users would require more training... but I'm not cynical so I won't go that far. I'll just say it's awfully counterproductive to remove pictures and other helpful graphics from documentation that's intended to provide assistance to confused users.

Sometimes I'll search for an arcane command or some little-known feature that I know I have used successfully before. Now I get a few lines of text that attempt to describe an operation that could be far more easily described with a few pictures. I find the whole "help" experience very frustrating.

I am encouraged by the advances PTC is making in the area of contextual help. If you have the ability to install the PTC Learning Connector and you have access to the E-Learning libraries, you've got a wonderful resource at your fingertips. Contextual help will dump you right into a PTC University tutorial giving you step-by-step instructions on the specific action you're attempting. This is great... but most customers don't have the E-Learning libraries. Ones that do have them don't always seem to have the Learning Connector installed.

I realize PTC has been working on this area and I'm sure they'll get it ironed out. What's annoying to me is that it had to get so bad before someone noticed and tried to take action to correct it. As I've said numerous times recently, I'm encouraged by the effort PTC seems to be making of late to correct long-standing problems across the board. The worrisome part is that there were long-standing problems in the first place.

For awhile it seemed like Pro/ENGINEER and the other PTC products were like a rented beach house no one was maintaining. For a couple of years it's nice and still functions well. People still pay to vacation there. But over time the wind and the sea start peeling the paint, the roof starts leaking, the windows begin to rattle, etc. Eventually the property becomes harder and harder to book... people just naturally migrate to better maintained, more modern beach houses. Suddenly, the neglected beach house owner shows up, panics because he's losing money on his investment, and pours every spare dime into trying to correct the problems as fast as he can.

While it's nice to have the attention now... just what in the heck was going on during those "Wildfire" years when many of these small problems started to fester and cause damage? Who was maintaining the beach house for the first decade of the new millennium?

I don't know that those questions have answers. Who knows maybe those questions aren't even fair. My assessment of what happened during those years certainly won't ring true for everyone. But just as the RUGs started to fade and wither during those years, I felt PTC's core products did, too. For a time the whole company felt like a rudderless ship.

I think we're beyond that now... at least I hope so.