The biggest problem with the tutorial is the lack of screenshots.
That is your opinion, which is fine, but we don’t fully agree. Personally I find screenshots an impediment for how I learn things. They can be extremely valuable in the right scenario, but if they are spammed then I usually find another page to learn from. All I want to do is read the instructions.
If you are more of a visual learner though, you might find that our video tutorials are more your cup of tea. We create multiple forms of training materials because we know not everyone will like all of them.
If it is not accurate or updated, a simple note on the download would be a nice way to alert the audience.
Well, I think it is better to just make sure it is accurate, which we do try to do, rather than having a note in the software that says the tutorial is inaccurate. Maybe I don’t understand.
But about that, you’ve mentioned inaccuracies multiple times now, and I know we’ve fixed a few minor things (super minor, like “click the yellow pencil” when it is a monochrome icon now) for the next update, but if you have widespread inaccuracies to report, now is the time—and it would be much appreciated.
When I checked the download area for the latest paid version, I found the same version I am already running. I did not search for newer versions of unofficial releases.
I was referring to how there is a link to the main discussion thread for the snapshot issue, above where you posted—and that at the end of that thread is an update on development. I wasn’t suggesting that you should have searched high and low for betas and use them.
The tutorial is not well done for beginners, and pictures can avoid a lot of issues, even when the text is out of date.
Again, that’s you’re opinion. We have piles of feedback that says the opposite, frankly. Very few people have written in to complain about the tutorial, while many have written in purely to say how well it worked for them. I don’t know what your level of experience is with how feedback tends to work, but generally it is overwhelmingly negative even when there isn’t a problem—most people do not create an account or write to a company if they are happy. So when your feedback is balanced or mostly positive, you’re probably doing something right.
Again your opinion is valid, and not every approach to training is everyone’s cup of tea—the old, we’re never going to please everyone bit—and I thank you for that feedback, but I think we’re doing okay.
And again for how I work, all of the tutorials I appreciate look a whole lot more like Scrivener’s than what you’re describing. Long, detailed articles with 99% text and a few screenshots where there is some really tricky thing to describe. That’s how my brain works, I don’t want a picture of what was just spoken of, it is distracting and merely makes scrolling more tedious and necessary. The only major thing I would change about the tutorial if I was writing it myself is that I would make it more interactive. It does more explaining and less walking you through things than I personally prefer. I like to play, that’s how I learn.
I’m not looking for fight either, sorry if it came off that way. Something to know off the top is that we’re a very small company. There is no “staff of coders”, as you put. I don’t disagree with your assessment though, and it is something we’re looking to change with more frequent update cycles that have fewer fixes. But on that something to know is that the Mac version is quite stable at this point and has been for years. The snapshot thing is really one of the few major issues we’ve seen in a while (a few rare bugs with styles too, which are also fixed).