Help System: Do Like Wavelab

Cubase
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#1

At first glance, the WL help system seems very ‘retro’, but for -my- needs, it’s fabulous. By sticking with a modified HTML format (from Windows CHM) you get instant, CONTEXT-SENSITIVE help.

I totally appreciate this given how deep some of the features are in WL… and how infrequently I use them. IOW: Philippe’s system addresses the KEY issue with DAW help… a complex feature that one only uses very infrequently. You NEED instant access to -detailed- instructions on that ONE thing. And WL’s system does a great job of it.

HTML Help has gone totally out of fashion… my guess is because it is, frankly, harder to generate than a PDF, but properly done, it had a TON of advantages.

Cubase has gone far beyond what a ‘manual’ can handle.

Back to HTML help, I say.

One more reason to give much respect to Philippe.

#2

I’m not sure I agree because I always used to struggle with the CHM help method, mainly because I couldn’t do a global search so easily as I can in a PDF. Its like all the info is distributed around in loads of different windows that I can’t see all in one glance, whereas in a PDF its all there to scroll in front of me.

What I do like though is good tooltips, and if you’re meaning a number of key context sensitive ‘refresher’ pages then I’m 100% behind you!

Mike.

#3

That was the ‘old’ CHM.

The current W/L system does have a (fairly) nice global search. Not as nice as a ‘book’ (PDF)… but you could always use the WL PDF for that.

But how often is a keyword search even =useful= in Cubase? Pick a word (any word). 9 times out of 10 searching for that doesn’t yield good results in ‘Getting Into The Details’. If they offered a RegEx or wildcards or combinations or some kind of Relevance-based search it would be a different story. But they don’t.