User Friendly PTE

[JEB]

Hi,

While we are in a period of relative calm regarding the development of PTE and following on from recent discussions in this section and elsewhere in the forum I would like to make the following suggestion.

Would it not be beneficial to take a long hard look at the usability of the product?

We have seen fantastic developments in recent years, all of which have moved the boundaries. However in order to use many of these facilities the user has to have an intimate knowledge of not only PTE but also increasingly has to be quite computer savvy.

I believe that the time has now come to take stalk and examine what can be done to make the program more user friendly (WITHOUT compromising its flexibility for those who need this facility, after all it is primarily those people who have driven the development up till now).

I know that this has been discussed in the past. Suggestions included the possibility of two programs - basic and advanced etc. I think an example was given in the past of Adobe CS and Elements and I'm sure many arguments on both sides ensued. However, lets narrow that down a little and just consider how Elements is now presented. Three levels built into the one package, perhaps there is something to be learned from that approach?

I know it can't be just as straight forward as this but I also know from my personal experience of life, the longer you delay in reviewing, taking stalk and facing change the harder it becomes.

I'm no marketing expert but based on my own experience (and this has been highlighted elsewhere recently by others) many potential photographers are put off getting involved with PTE due to their fear of its perceived complexity.

I will now get controversial!

As a committed Mac user I would far rather see Igor spend time and resources on making PTE more user friendly than on producing a Mac version.

Regards

John

[PGA]

John,

You have opened a debate on a subject that I have had occasion in the epast to raise both on and off the forum. Whilst recognising that there is a problem is always the first step in solving it, it would be very worthwhile to start documenting some very specific, constructive, suggestions. So, what changes would you like to see that would, in your opinion, make the product more user friendly.

I'll state two of mine to start the ball rolling.

In v7.5 Igor introduced the same, standard and user-customisable top and bottom Toolbars and the Information bar in both the Slides and Timeline views. I believe that the O&A window should be redesigned to the same standard. Within the new Timeline view there is a second full-width Toolbar, below the mini-player, that carries all the features that are specific to the Timeline view. I believe that the O&A view should also have its own full-width Toolbar, in this case either immediately under the standard Toolbar at the top of the screen or immediately below the slide display area.

In v8.0 Igor has provided us with Settings > Preferences > Templates where we can nominate our preferred folder for storing Templates and Slide Styles. I believe that this tab should be renamed Folders and should also include our preferred locations for storing Customized Transitions and Toolbar profiles. If there are any other categories of item that we, as users, can create/modify and save, then this is where we should be able to nominate our preferred folders for those, too.

regards,

Peter

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Viewing the waveform in the O&A view would be top of my list.

Yachtsman1.

[JEB]

Hi,

It was not my intention at this time to create a list of things that could or should be improved or provided, this already exists to a large extent in this section of the forum.

I wanted to achieve two things.

General support from the community that there is a need to address the issue and ideally agreement from Igor that he would be willing to consider looking at possible options.

Regards

John

[Barry Beckham]

Good idea, but with some problems. You can please all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but never all of the people all of the time.

I don't know how Igor can pick up good ideas from the forum because quite often a suggestion can and often does turn into a lengthy and passionate debate on the merits of that suggestion. To keep up with all that and winkle out a good idea from the daft must be a nightmare. I think there is a lot of potentially great ideas from members and users. I think the issue is finding a way to get them to Igor in a quick and easy list form. Igor can then pick what he thinks is a good idea from the hundred that will not be or those which are not practically possible.

I am not always sure the experienced enthusiasts are the best people to ask anyway. Too many axes to grindand the people that may have a valuable voice are those who don't visit the forum.

[JEB]

Barry,

I understand what you are saying with regard to identifying potential improvements but this is not the point of the exercise at this time.

What I am trying to establish at this stage is whether or not it is generally thought that there is a need to improve the usability of the program.

If that is shown to be the case then we have to take it from there, and yes there will be issues to address as you have so correctly indicated.

As has been pointed out by you and others, many of the active forum members are extremely competent users of PTE. Unfortunately it would appear that perhaps not all give sufficient thought to beginners, the less well informed and those with limited technical ability who may well have other talents that could be expressed through AV and particularly PTE.

I have been trying in my own little way to encourage camera club members to take up AV. Many people I speak with declare an interest but I believe are reluctant to put in the effort to learn what they see as a complex piece of software with limited documentation and erratic tutorial support. I, and presumably others, know that this is in part true but understand the reasons.

My motivation is simply to make a contribution to the development of PTE that could help open it to a wider user group.

If my views are shared by people recording their GENERAL agreement here then we can consider how to move forward, clearly only with Igor's commitment.

Regards

John

[jkb]

We go around Camera Clubs, AV Groups etc trying to encourage more people to use PTE.

Not just to make AV's or even Slides to Music, but to also show that PTE can be very useful to the single image worker who wants to give talks or simply show their single images in a better way.

The basic use of PTE in this way is extremely easy & we can demonstrate in 5 to 10 minutes how you can put a simple show together. Even to adding Titles & doing simple Pan or zoom animations.

I am not sure how much easier you could make the basics.

It is only when the user wants to move onto more complex animations that they sometimes struggle.

I agree that it is much easier to learn something new when you are shown, rather than being faced with new software & not having a clue where to start, especially for those not that computer literate. But the documentation is available for those who look.

Maybe we need a separate section on the forum for new users with some simple explanations of how to make basic shows.

This way they wouldn't have to wade through the numerous posts from more experienced users trying to find how to do the simple stuff.

Jill

[davegee]

There are Tutorials in the relevant section of the forum and there some very good ones.

But inevitably, when a question is asked, a long explanation of the answer is given.

I rarely see anyone refer anyone else to the relevant existing tutorial.

I am probably guilty of this myself.

DG

[Antbrewer]

A few thoughts on this for what they are worth,

My club is gradually growing an interest in AVs as many are. We have a few visiting speakers for AV evenings who on the most part all use PtE.

However I think there are probably only 2 or 3 in our club that use Pte (including myself) and the rest use Proshow gold. When we have specific 'digital' meets and this discussion comes up the answer always seems as much as anything else to be the actual look of the program and the interface. I believe there is a perception that because PtE doesn't have the brightly coloured boxes and icons that Proshow has and PtE appears a little utilitarian it may put people off. Our world these days is full of icons and images and maybe that is what people want and expect?

One of our members said to me after he had downloaded the trial version that he gave up as he had no idea how to make 'things move' . You probably have to look a little harder in the PtE window than you do in the Photex programs.

I agree with Jill that it is quite easy to make a basic show for a new comer to PtE. However as has been said many times before because the software is developing at such a rate instruction manuals and the like struggle to keep up in a definitive way.

Anthony

[JEB]

Hi,

I think I read recently on the forum a reference to Wiki as a possible solution for some PTE situation.

This reminded me that Audacity use Wiki as a means of managing their "Help". If you are not familiar with this it may be worth having a look. I have used it in the past and found it very effective. As an open-source program Audacity can't be a million miles from PTE in terms of available resource to support such a facility.

Regards

John

[uuderzo]

IMO what PTE needs is a rework of the O&A UI. I mean, there are lots of features that "pop up" from small buttons and so on. The idea that an occasional user may have is that there is a bit of confusion, like if some interface were added "later" (for example, the 3d parameters).

The new GUI trend is the docked panel instead of the floating one, maybe moving to this direction may give some freshness to the UI, even if i understand that it's quite impossible to please everyone.

I suppose that trying to uniform all GUI elements and adding those things that people expect should exists (massive drag'n drop instead of popup menus or keyboard shortcuts) may make the app more user friendly to the newbie. Even trying to clean the toolbars by making them context sensitive (but it may be annoying not to find a button just because the UI is not the in the right "context").

My 2 cents.

[Barry Beckham]

PTE needs either a streaming video or downloadable video on PTE's main page that takes new users through the basics. Something simple that gets them to the viewing of their first slide show as quickly and as painlessly as possible and without heaps of learning and absolutely NO technical stuff. 20 minutes maximum in length will do it.

[Igor]

Hi,

Thanks for your thoughts!

I agree with many suggestions. Just we need more time.

In version 7.5 we reworked Projects options, Slide options, work with transition effects. New timeline view with audio clips.

In version 8.0 (which will be ready in a month) we finished improvements of the timeline view, and fully reworked Audio tab in Project options. Slide styles should help new users to start work in PTE. Project templates was reworked.

O&A editor will be fully rewritten in future version 8.5.

We'll try to improve usability of PTE with each new version.

We plan to launch Wiki for PTE.

What regarding two editions, I'll tell a little later.

[susiesdad]

<...>

Sorry for editing. But please read WnSoft Forum Rules, Common 1-8

[JEB]

Igor,

I think I speak for the other members of the forum when I say that we recognise the wonderful work and developments that have taken place in Vs 7.5, 8 and 8.5.

Particularly, I'm sure we all appreciate you taking the time to respond in such a positive manner to our requests for more.

It is most encouraging to know that there are plans for the future that appear to be addressing the concerns being expressed here.

Thank you,

John