Pinegrow's "Interactive Introduction to Pinegrow" sample page

Beginners
1

Greetings to all. I’m checking out Pinegrow during the trial period and going through the documentation. In the “Interactive Introduction to Pinegrow” it says:

“To open the sample page used in this guide, open the in-app help in Pinegrow by clicking on the in the top toolbar. There, go to “Getting started with Pinegrow” and click on the “Open the sample page” button. Or, you can open one of your own pages and experiment with that.”

I don’t see any “Open the sample page” button. Is the link missing? Or am I blind? Can anybody help me? (I did open another web page to follow along, but I’d prefer to use the real sample page.)

Thanks for any guidance.

2

Can you please try this :

3

Thank you; that works! I just noticed that the text in the instructions I pasted above did not copy over entirely. The documentation text says: “To open the sample page used in this guide, open the in-app help in Pinegrow by clicking on the [Here they include the question mark (?) icon from the upper right of the Pinegrow menu] instead of the Support tab.

This definitely does not work. If anyone from Pinegrow is reading this, perhaps the directions could be updated on that page to go to SUPPORT > QUICK INTRODUCION…CLICK BUTTON. Have a great day!

4

In fact, more precisely, the in-app help is no more and the click on the help icon which previously opened this interactive documentation inside Pinegrow now leads to our documentation site. This change is not yet “officially shown” but this is how the help will be accessible from now on.

5

Hi, just checking,
As PG is always developing pretty rabidly, UI etc changes, if the IN APP help, which should be relevant to the version of the App you have is no more…

What is the anticipated outcome for when, in the next future versions, as in , the very first ones with only external web help …(which just for the record I never really like as, no connection, no help, no docs! I know its a web developement app… but it can work offline, thats one of the beauties of PG.)…and someone stays at that version for OS limitation, cost, etc… and they then go to look up help docs?

There is currently no easy way to find docs for older versions now, so if someone then is directed to web docs… will there be easy to find, comparison instructions for different version of the UI/procedures etc relevant to different versions?

If they had in app help relevant to their current version (not as in depth I acknowledge) then it shouldnt be such a pain.

I’m just asking as there is quite often a disparity between WYSIWYG of the docs/tutorials and the Interface and questions like the OP of this are pretty common, so just wondering if there is something planned out to keep relevant docs for relevant versions available.

I know your a teeny weeny yet super productive, finger on the pulse dev gang and docs take soooo much time , but it might be and idea to knock up side by side (well many versions so many sides :smiley: )
Or column by column comparisons of how to get things done in different versions.

and just for the record, I just fired up PG 6.8 to see its in app help :smiley: yay.
… after running 7.0.5.
I had a couple of warnings about broken web spaces, unable to load profile…please restart app etc after doing this.

So as well as the above, is there going to be an issue with running 6.8 after 7.x in order to view the help docs when offline or whatever other reason?

Ok, TTFN
:slight_smile:

6

I agree that an option for offline help, perhaps a download for each major version in .chm or .pdf format, would be great for those who for various reasons might require it. The online help could be more up-to-date, but could be converted to .pdf at intervals.

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7

Documentation has always been something of a bette noir for me, and I will very specifically base my choices of tools to use for my day to day work based on the quality and availability of the documentation.

Pinegrow’s comprehensive documentation (and video library on you tube) was fundamental in my selecting as a tool to use. However if I’m going to be perfectly honest the mix mash between the availability of topics that were clearly written for older versions interspersed with those written for more current, or indeed the current version does tend to confuse the issue at times. I fondly recall trying to figure out the right way to set up tailwind for example and I’ve been having similar fun with interactions.

Over the years I have written documentation for numerous software products and I eventually chose a product that would allow me to produce multi-Product, multi-version help systems ( Welcome to HelpStudio (innovasys.com)). If you follow the link you’ll see on the right hand marging that you have the option to select both product and version.

By default the newest version always takes priority (no bad thing from the perspective of the developer as it allows them to showcase their newest version) but users of older versions remain catered for. Default help format these days is online, but you can distribute the online files for offline use or distribute content in various e pub formats as well as the old style .chm files.

My own personal preference is always for offline help but I accept that the trendy young, always online crowd, appear to favour online help.

In the case of Pinegrow’s help it’s obvious that any help associated with the plugin version will need to be online only, but for the desktop version I would absolutely welcome the ability to load offline help as well as the product itself. It wouldn’t need to be directly connected to the product either, just available to call up separately if I wanted it.

My own experience doing documentation work makes me appreciate all the more that requests like this are not easy to fulfil. Much will depend upon the tools that were used to create the documentation itself, and it is always worth remembering that individual topics can take from a few hours to days to complete. Rack that up over and entire product’s documentation and you have a substantial investment in time and effort.

For all of that I would say though that if a way could be found to at least version the documentation, and to be able to switch between them with relative ease, it would be a most welcome addition.

1 Like
8

Whoever invents automatic AI powered documentation & tutorials generator will be the next [insert your favorite billionaire] :slight_smile:

The case for versioned offline docs is strong, but in reality, even to keep the current set of docs and tutorials up to date is a struggle.

A comprehensive set of searchable built-in interactive tutorials would be the best solution IMO, merging docs and tutorials together. They can also be versioned and packaged with the app.

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