An EXTREMELY ANNOYING limitation in your program

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billvelek
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An EXTREMELY ANNOYING limitation in your program

Post by billvelek »

Jeff and company, you are doing a TERRIFIC job, and I love your program; I do have a complaint, though. Quite some time ago I mentioned/questionned why you have your program designed so that the copy function does not work in the User's Guide (left-click/hold and then drag the mouse to highlight text, and then right-click for a drop-down menu, and then select 'copy' ... to store in the clipboard and use in other programs). I don't remember ever seeing any sort of response; it you did reply, I somehow missed it and I'm sorry.

To be honest, I can't remember the last time I've used a program where I could not do that; it is virtually a universal feature ... and an extremely handy one, at that. I assume that you just haven't gotten around to fixing this. However, if this is intentional and you do not plan to change it, I think you are making a mistake and I can't imagine what good purpose is served by that; while it surely isn't going to make any difference at all when people decide to buy your program or not, it is an ANNOYANCE. And every little aggravation diminishes your program slightly, just as many little things add polish to your program.

I presume that you are welcoming help in expanding the User's Guide content. Well, if I'm going to engage in any discussions that require quoting more than a few words, I'm going to want to be able to copy and paste it into emails/posts. If I need to split my screen so that I can type the text myself, I'm less likely to be bothered.

Now, what has prompted this post is that I have just discovered that part of your BTP program itself is similarly limited. I was in the middle of an email and used your BTP 'Units Calculator' to determine that 42 ounces = .32812 gallons and I then attempted to copy that figure to my clipboard so that I could open my Windows calculator and paste it in there for further math calculations and also paste it into a newsgroup post. Nope; doesn't work! So I found myself having to manually enter data from one screen to another, and then rechecking to see that I typed it correctly. Please don't be offended, but that is so inconvenient and unnecessary that it's just plain ridiculous. Please tell me that you are going to fix this soon.

Thanks.

Bill Velek
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Whoa

Post by bzwrxbz »

I seem to be able to Ctrl-C, then Ctrl-V into a windows calculator just fine from the Unit Converter. So maybe you should expand on what OS you are using to determine where the problem may lie. It is not BTP systemic, but BTP may be inadvertantly causing it within your specific environment.

Yes, I have the same problem with Ctrl C, Ctrl V from the User Help section. To be honest, I have never had reason to do so, but I can appreciate why you would. Usually these problems lie in the third party development side of things, and not with the primary developers of BTP. It is possible that this particular problem may not be able to fixed due to this.
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billvelek
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Post by billvelek »

Thanks, 'bzwrxbz'. I'm sure that I was cognizant of the ctl-c ctl-v commands a long time ago, but have become so accustomed to using the mouse for everything that I never even think of keyboard commands any more. And it shouldn't be necessary for users to have to use them either -- not if a program is truly polished.

Anyway, I might have come across pretty strongly last night. I had had a few home brews and was pretty frustrated and annoyed at the time; nevertheless, I didn't say anything that wasn't true, and I don't think I was rude about it -- although I may have been a bit too terse. Sorry if I offended anyone, ... but please fix that problem, if possible. Thanks.

Cheers.

Bill Velek
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jeff
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BTP Guide

Post by jeff »

We had nothing to do with any of the development of the user guide in BTP therefore have no control over how it operates. It will have to do for now until we find a better option.
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billvelek
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.pdf format should fix the problem

Post by billvelek »

Thanks, Jeff, for your quick reply.

Regarding the User Guide, I think that putting it in .pdf format -- as I believe you indicated will happen eventually -- will cure the copy and paste problem, since Adobe Reader will permit the copying of text into the clipboard.

Regarding the BTP program itself, I can use the regular menu bar edit commands, or, when using the 'calculator', I can use ctl-c.

Cheers.

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Post by JPinAZ »

What about using the html files in the BeerToolsPro/help directory?
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billvelek
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I don't know what you mean ...

Post by billvelek »

JPinAZ wrote:What about using the html files in the BeerToolsPro/help directory?
I've just tried exploring the help file, and I can't see any way of getting to any 'html' files. Can you elaborate?

Thanks.

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Post by JPinAZ »

Using Windows Explorer (or whatever the Apple equivalent is if that's what you're using) go to the directory you have BTP installed in. In that directory there is a subdirectory titled Help. Inside the Help directory there are a bunch of subdirectories corresponding to the categories you see when you use help within the program. There are html files in these subdirectories that have the help information. I don't know if it's everything (or even the same) you get when you use help withing the program though.

For example, I can go to c:\Beer Tools Pro\Help\Schedule\ & there are three files:
graph.html
working.html
types.html
These are the same as the three items under Schedule when you use the BTP user guide.
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billvelek
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Thanks.

Post by billvelek »

Thanks, JPinAZ. That worked and I was able to copy and paste from the html files so I now have my own consolidated manual that, with a few changes, fits on 18 pages. Still, it was a lot of trouble that everyone won't want to bother with. But that function can probably be fixed later. Jeff and company also need to flesh out the user's guide a bit more, in my opinion, so maybe they can take care of it then.

Cheers.

Bill Velek
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