WinCustomize Help Center [Beta] Launches!

Help me, help you

By Zoomba Posted May 14, 2008 10:46:49External Link

Last week I posted a little preview of the upcoming changes to the WC Help page. The idea was to make the page easier to navigate, easier to read, more inviting/friendly and give us the ability to expand on the help resources we could provide on the page. The old help page was just a bunch of link lists that weren't very organized and hadn't been updated in years. The format of the page and the content itself basically ensured that virtually no one would use it. We also didn't have a very good link between the Help page and the WinCustomize Wiki.

Today, I'm very happy to launch the first version of the new WinCustomize Help Center!

Please take a stroll through it. Click the links and let me know:

Any bugs on that page.
Issues such as broken links, wacky formatting errors, images floating in the wrong spots etc.
Links you think should be added
Am I missing a key tutorial? Essential articles? Items that you think should definitely be included but aren't currently.
Any other misc feedback.

Please keep in mind that this is not a full-fledged help system with all sorts of fancy features. It's just a really long HTML page with sections I'm hiding and unhiding depending on what you click on. It is pretty easily expanded and modified though, so I can make reasonable additions fairly quickly.

Huge thanks to: andrew_ & nauticalpixel for all their CSS help, DoctorNick for fixing some annoying JS bugs, and the folks in #stardock for helping test early versions of this page.

+50 Karma 28 Replies 10 Referrals

Any chance of some ObjectBar love? Having it listed there might actually promote more people skinning it.

If this help center is anything like your MyColors support, then you will never get an response back. And if you do... the person has no idea on anything.

Nice, clean, doesn't have the cluttered look that sometimes happens.

Said it before, but it's worth saying again, you folks always seem to take the time and make the effort to come up with a new look for your designs.

The new Help Center shows that it was time well spendt.

Sign Up or Login and this ad disappears!
There are many great features available to you once you register. Sign Up for a free account and browse the forums without ads.

ok in tutorials for windowblinds the color preset screencast is a blank page.
http://islanddog.wincustomize.com/articles.aspx?aid=303464

also the subscription link for community site help for subscription info is a bad link error 404
http://www.wincustomize.com/subscriber.aspx?info

so far that is about it Zoomba

SGT

Huge improvement over the old site. Great work.

So far I didn't find any stray links or missing pages.

In software for Desktopx the product forum page is set for Icon Packager
and I that is all I have found so far.

SGT

Went through for a quick ride and man it's great already. Can't wait to see the final product. Thanks for all the effort.

If this help center is anything like your MyColors support, then you will never get an response back. And if you do... the person has no idea on anything.

The page is not a support system. It is an index of helpful resources sorted by category and by application.

Haven't clicked through yet, but it is certainly a nice presentation.

Sup Zoomba?

I only spent a couple minutes viewing the page, so it's possible I missed it, but...

Somethings I would like to see linked/added

WC Badge Legend
WC Level Legend
Customer Level Legend
Application Listing and BRIEF description (like on the bottom of http://www.wincustomize.com/gallery.aspx)

Everything looks great so far. Good work guys.

+1 to gh33da

This is probably a daft question ... But is the Help Centre only going to promote Stardock Products only ...?

What about Winstep ?

mike b1954, I think they were/are looking at the main pages linking people to stuff that might help them with problems they are having.

I think you might find what you are looking for by clicking the community icon then clicking community site index.

Good Grief .. how did I miss that ? Dohhhhhhh !! Nice to see a Desktop Sidebar link there too !!

Wow ... been here a while and never saw that !!!! tsk!

Thanks for the headsup Philly !!

Zoomba the DS link on that page needs a button .. here you go !!
.

Not a problem Mike, it sometimes takes me several if not more times going through stuff until I notice everything.

I'm willing to add apps like DS or WinStep to the Help page, I just don't have the necessary information myself to write a section for them. If people want to send me along the info, I'll be more than happy to add it

One qualification though: I'm limiting it to apps that have a gallery here at WinCustomize.

This is really great!I plan on using this,more DX for dummies,please.

Will there a link to this page on Impulse? On the(?)button menu or a tab in Community? May help out new people,and introduce them to WC.

Looking good!

How about an ObjectDesktop update page that shows the latest versions of what the ObjectDesktop components are. I've been seeing people compare there versions and there not always the same. My 2 cents.

I'd say "looking good" but uh.

An explanation would be nice.

Well, I presume you read the article.

And it mentions CSS. CSS, if you didn't know, controls and look and feel of a web site. An acronym for 'Cascading style sheets'.

From the article:

Huge thanks to: andrew_ & nauticalpixel for all their CSS help

Which means I, in part, designed the page.

Which means if I were to say it looks good, I would be patting myself on the back.

See?

Help Page looking great so far!