i see some of the same issues come up all the time on the board.
You guys ever consider having the top 5 issues in pop-ups when a user first opens Dorico? An informational list about what to check right there when they first open Dorico,
They might still come and ask here, search help, or pose questions. But then again, they might get those issues resolved right when they open the program.
One of those pop-ups that gives you an option to “Don’t show me this again” type thing once they use it and don’t need it.
Also, users will still come here and give you feedback if some instruction needs improvement.
And maybe the top 5 will change over time. No big deal I would think.
It’s not permanent. You should be able to make it disappear just like not wanting it after the initial appearance. It would never show up again if you don’t see it.
Somewhat like an opening flash screen. “Turn off this feature.”
I don’t see why it would be a problem. You may not want it, but I don’t understand why it would be a problem for you.
Trouble shooter, might be a good example.
No sound.
Check this device.
and so one/
Introduction to note input
The caret and the grid
etc. …
I guess there could possibly be more explicit troubleshooting links here, but there is a link to both the forum and the manual right there already. I personally find the pop-ups that Adobe uses with every update to be really annoying if that’s the kind of thing you had in mind.
I’m trying to be sensitive to everyone who has to deal with something all the time that they don’t use (including me), but a bit confused when someone takes issue with something they’re not going to use and can get rid of easily.
Then the issue is possible added bloat. I can’t imagine a trouble shooter, taking over 100k if that.
Of course I’m only talking about a trouble shooter for the 5 top issues, not the whole program.
It’s certainly an interesting idea, and thank you for sharing @rexwine .
An important consideration is the determining of “top 5”, as this is highly subjective: people who are only using Dorico to engrave music might have playback disabled entirely, for example, so issues relating to sound would be entirely irrelevant for them. This then means implementing a system for determining what to show here, which requires time/effort that must be balanced against other development/testing/publishing requirements.
Another consideration is ideas around complexity: every new thing added runs the chance of disturbing existing functionality, which means additional testing load.
Relatedly, well-intentioned additions can also backfire. For example, here’s an excellent episode of a podcast “Cautionary Tales” about how systems we implement “for safety” have sometimes ended up causing problems (including a near-explosion at a nuclear plant, caused by a screw that was added to avoid explosions at the nuclear plant).
(Cautionary Tales is an amazing podcast, which can cover quite dark topics but Tim’s storytelling draws out the crucial points beautifully.)
All that is to say: this isn’t something we’re likely to implement, at least in the short term, but it’s always good to stay open-minded about things that can help our users make the most of Dorico and feedback like this are welcome contributions.
I didn’t mean anything like “top 5” to be set in stone. It was for illustration mainly and to indicate I wasn’t talking about a large subset of common problems.
Ben:
Yes, when I was thinking of trouble shooter,questions where the problem can be narrowed down based on the previous answer. So for instance it doesn’t waste time; it leads you from general to specific. On a macro scale, such a pattern would be "Are you on MAc or windows, and on down limiting the scope immediately. (that’s just an example also, as hopefully Dorico knows what OS you’re using.
