Errors in PTC manuals - how many have you found ?

[NickD]

The list of errors that I have found in PTC's manuals is growing every month. I have almost given up reporting these errors to PTC as I have never seen any timely corrections made to the online copies. I think it is clear that the PDFs do not get properly proof-read (by a technically literate, native English speaker) before they are released, and whilst I could understand that for beta releases or even F000 releases, I think it is inexcusable for any subsequent maintenance releases. I'm not talking about minor typo's that might have slipped through the net due to imperfect spell chucking, but much more serious errors such as :

• the ECAD WGM manual (v10.0 M030) having whole sections of text taken from the MCAD WGM manuals, but still referring to AutoCad, Catia, etc
• cross-references given to sections that are said to have more information, that actually contain less information !
• sections of text (or graphics) being missing or repeated
• references to settings or features from previous major release, that no longer exist in current release (eg. ECAD Client Prefs in the WGM manual)
• key information being buried so deeply, or in such obscure places that there is little likelihood of finding it when it is most relevant
• incomprehensible English language, poor logic or structure, and even (dare I say it..) things that turn out to be just plain wrong

If the quality of these manuals is meant to be an advert for using Arbortext with Windchill, then it looks like a pretty poor one, or am mistakenly confusing poor tools with poor workmen ?

I can see no reason why PTC should not make corrections to online copies of manuals immediately, and include a URL in all PDFs that goes to the latest version (for the same release and maintenance cut) on their website. Indeed, why don't we see a Windchill version number in the footer of the front page to confirm the exact document version and date (in any unambiguous date format), eg R10.0 M030 vA.3, 23rd April 2012 ?

Perhaps users could run a "Golden Blots" competition & award each year with categories like : most misleading, biggest omission, maximum obscurity ?

PS - if you are ever frustrated by software manuals, and need some light relief, then take a look a this video on YouTube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[jzupfer]

Nick,

I'm very sorry to hear of your poor experience with our Windchill documentation, but I appreciate your honesty and the specific examples that you provided.

In many (but not all) cases, we do make updates to PDFs available on ptc.com, and the link to the Reference Documents site is included in the front matter of each PDF file. The release and version information for the corresponding product is included on the title page of each document, but I will certainly consider your suggestion about including it in the footer as well.

I'd appreciate a chance to talk with you directly about the problems you encountered with our documentation so that I can take action to correct them. Would you be available for a phone conversation?

Thanks,

Jane