Hi,

Further to Rob's comments on the UEBBS about the on-line help available in Emplode, I've found the following bugs/out of date features (this is not a comprehensive list):

1 - The is no Help (button/F1) available on the initial 'Select empeg car' dialogue.

2 - Clicking 'Options...' on the initial 'Select empeg car' dialogue does show a help button (F1 also works here). This takes you to a help screen 'The Options Dialogue' seemingly under 'Connecting to your PC'.

Under 'related topics', 'The options dialogue' has an option 'The options dialogue' which is a different page.

Click 'Connecting to your PC' and a different help option is shown, even though the one which was on screen was purportedly under that option anyway.

This is typical of a number of the help options and, IMHO, is not an intuitative way of using help.

3 - Under 'Connecting to your PC', 'Setting up an Ethernet connection' and 'The options dialogue', the window shown as 'Property sheet' is out of date (it doesn't mention ethernet).

4 - Under the 'Related topics' section of 'Setting up an Ethernet connection', the option 'Starting emplode' brings up an error message "The page cannot be displayed".

5 - (Really, really picky one this). 'Uninstalling emplode' - "empeg car Management Software" should read "empeg-car Management Software"

6 - 'Upgrading the player' Talks about 'The upgrade wizard', but doesn't explain how to start the wizard (should the 'Tools-->Upgrade empeg-car software' menu be changed to 'Tools-->Upgrade wizard'?

7 - 'Upgrading the player' shows a different graphic than appears in reality - this is potentially confusing.

8 - 'Upgrading the player' - Explanation seems to finish half way through.

9 - 'Playlists' - Nonsensical definition of 'unattached items' - "A playlist called 'Unattached items' is also listed. This contains items not in a playlist."

10 - 'Playlists' - These are explained in two paragraphs. The example given is not at all clear. "...you can see that tracks have been grouped into artist, group and genre playlists. In fact, the tracks in each of the genre playlists are copied from an artist or group playlist. " Is incorrect. No tracks can be seen at all.

11 - 'Playlists' - Doesn't explain how to copy tracks between playlists - It does in 'Track lists' and 'Adding a track'. While 'Playlists' is a related topic of 'Track lists', the reverse is not the case. Since 'Playlists' refers to operations covered in 'Track lists', should this be corrected?

12 - What is the difference between 'Playlists' and 'Track lists'?

Playlist - "A playlist is simply a collection of tracks that..."

Track list - "The track list displays each of the tracks and nested lists that are contained in the highlighted playlist"

I assume that these are definitions of the left and right hand panes of an Emplode window, but the explanation is far from clear.

13 - 'Navigating playlists' contains a reference to itself under 'Related topics'

14 - F1 help doesn't appear to be context sensitive:

'empeg-car' highlighted, F1 pressed = No response

Any playlist (incl. 'unattached items') highlighted, F1 pressed = Help 'Introduction'

Any track highlighted, F1 pressed = Help 'Introduction'

Surely each of these three should display 'Playlists', 'Playlists' and 'Track lists' respectively. Ideally though, there would be more appropriate sections on each of these.

15 - 'Player configuration' window. 'Help' button is outside the tab box. It's action, therefore, should apply to the whole of the window, not the current contents of the tab box, which is what it does.

16 - 'Configuring the player' is out of date - doesn't show 'Mute', 'Shutdown' and 'Advanced'.

17 - As per 15, but for 'Playlist' (Edit-->New playlist) dialogue box.

18 - 'Edit-->Set playlist order'. Dialogue box has no help available.

19 - 'The emplode menus'. Graphics (and explanations for) 'Edit' and 'Help' are out of date.

20 - Clicking 'Help' or keying F1 on 'empeg-car upgrade wizard' dialogue box gives an error "Cannot find the C:\PROGRAM FILES\EMPEG-CAR\EMPEGUPGRADE.HLP file. Do you want to try to find this file yourself?"

21 - As per 15, but for 'Options' dialogue box (Tools-->Options)

22 - No mention is made of why playlists appear in bold

23 - No mention is made of what the different playlist icons mean (e.g. ones to be uploaded)

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Note that nos. 15, 17 and 21 all the same, but... Give no indication that that's not the only help in the matter. For example, bring up the 'Options' dialogue box (Tools-->Options...) and click help. The headline is "The options dialogue". The description is "Select the connection type emplode uses to communicate with your player here. More information is available here". The implication is that that is all the information which is available from that window (because the Help button is outside the tab box). Nowhere does it say that this information is just for the 'Connection' tab. It's not until you click the 'Preferences' or 'Troubleshooting' tabs and then click 'Help' that you realise. Then you realise that to get help for a window with a tab box with plenty of options is not the easiest thing in the world (select tab, hit help, read, select next tab, hit help.......).


Nick.


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18Gb blue - s/n 080000299 (original queue position 8724)

No feedback for months, then it all comes along at once..

Rob