Will we ever get a proper manual?

… well, it doesn’t improve MY productivity. Once I’d got over the devastating impact of not being able to use Excel without a struggle, because all the familiar menus were gone, and had learnt where things were in the new version, I realised that a lot of what I had been able to do quickly had been made much slower because there were more mouse clicks and the mouse had to to be moved across the screen far more. I’ve picked up the impression that there’s some broad agreement that the new “ribbon” interface is easier for new users and for those who use only a limited set of the features, but is a PITA for those who make more extensive use of the software. I went back to using an older version of Excel whenever possible, because I find it inherrently quicker to work with.

… now haven’t I read something similar in this forum?

Once you have set up WL7 for your specific needs, including the difinition of shortcuts etc., WL7 is faster in the workflow than WL6. I find WL7 extremely flexible and you can set it up very personally to fit your own workflow. But that is what you have to do first. Which brings us back to the point of this thread: Many people don’t get to the point where they take full advantage of this flexibility because they don’t even know about the possibilities of WL7. The reason for this has been mentioned many times in this thread…

+1. WL7 faster and seems easier to personalize.

It’s a sad situation. The Wl6 manual is a wonderful manual. It would not have taken THAT MUCH MORE to delete/add/update to transform it into a WL7 manual. Instead Steinberg chose a cheap route, and one that over time might backfire depending on the competition.

WL7 works fine for me now. But it took months to get used to. Had I had a user manual it would have taken just a few weeks. However the problem still exists when I want to try something out of the ordinary from my day to day projects. Then…without the manual I’m completely lost stumbling around guessing.

And the so-called “help” has not helped me out once!

I agree the “help” system is mostly useless. It tells you the definition of the different buttons and controls but not where they are or how to use them. Kind of like learning how to write a poem by using a dictionary. All the words are there but in alphabetical order so basically meaningless.

After selling wavelab 6 for years knowing it did not burn cd’s on anything but an operating system 3 generations old, they further alianate some of us by not making a manual for a new and radically changed program. I still can only use wavelab 7 as only a burning program after using wavelab 6 for all of my work. The Ask video is good but only scratches the surface. It is not an in depth video.

As stated before. A simple statement from Steinberg that they will make a manual would go a long way. I do not think it is too much to ask that a program costing in excess of $500 come with at least a pdf manual. And please understand that the documentation released so far is not even close to a manual.