OK, just going to get this off my chest. Had my 17" Flat Panel iMac for a month or so and absolutely loving it. What I don't love is the lack of information that comes with a piece of equipment that for some of us is a pretty big investment. Whilst I am not new to Macs, I am new to iMacs and OSX and an instruction manual would have been much appreciated.
I appreciate that the iMac has a 'Help Viewer' which at first glance looks very helpful but in reality is about as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle. It has no index that I can find and if you dare to pose a question or type a keyword in the search field, be prepared to trawl through fifty help topic results that have a vague connection to what you typed in but don't address your query.
For an afternoon of frustration, try searching the Help Viewer for info on how to burn a CD - it very nicely tells you to drag the CD icon to the Burn icon in the dock. What it neglects to add is that you can't actually see the Burn icon until you drag over the Trash icon and it miraculously appears (of course, I should have known). A very simple process that I don't have a problem with, I just want to be told about it instead of embarking on an hour-long journey of enlightenment.
I also realise that there are online resources available that are helpful, but not all of us are online 24/7 and should I really have to log in every time I have a mystery to solve? I don't want to read posts from the hundreds of lost souls who have gone before me in the hope that they were confused by the same issues. The forums should be for real technical issues instead of being clogged by people trying to learn the basics.
There are great books on the market (Robin Williams has some excellent ones), but again, why should I have to invest in a book when I've just paid thousands for my computer? Message to Apple, you come up with computers that real people need, now spend some of your development dollars on something really radical like a basic hard-copy user guide. I'll keep convincing my friends to buy a Mac and I'll keep making a post-purchase appointment with them to show them how to use the thing.
There, I feel better now...
Any feedback welcome.
I appreciate that the iMac has a 'Help Viewer' which at first glance looks very helpful but in reality is about as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle. It has no index that I can find and if you dare to pose a question or type a keyword in the search field, be prepared to trawl through fifty help topic results that have a vague connection to what you typed in but don't address your query.
For an afternoon of frustration, try searching the Help Viewer for info on how to burn a CD - it very nicely tells you to drag the CD icon to the Burn icon in the dock. What it neglects to add is that you can't actually see the Burn icon until you drag over the Trash icon and it miraculously appears (of course, I should have known). A very simple process that I don't have a problem with, I just want to be told about it instead of embarking on an hour-long journey of enlightenment.
I also realise that there are online resources available that are helpful, but not all of us are online 24/7 and should I really have to log in every time I have a mystery to solve? I don't want to read posts from the hundreds of lost souls who have gone before me in the hope that they were confused by the same issues. The forums should be for real technical issues instead of being clogged by people trying to learn the basics.
There are great books on the market (Robin Williams has some excellent ones), but again, why should I have to invest in a book when I've just paid thousands for my computer? Message to Apple, you come up with computers that real people need, now spend some of your development dollars on something really radical like a basic hard-copy user guide. I'll keep convincing my friends to buy a Mac and I'll keep making a post-purchase appointment with them to show them how to use the thing.
There, I feel better now...
Any feedback welcome.