I just purchased AS 5.6 and running under Windows 2000 no tool tips are offered?
I have no clue what the icons for the tools mean and AS seems to want to keep me ignorant of what things do.
I see some tool tips displayed but only erratically.
I tried to find a setting to force tool tips to be displayed with zer0 luck.
Is it me, W2K or AS?
No Tooltips?
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synthsin75
- Posts: 10254
- Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:20 pm
- Location: Oklahoma
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I assume you mean the pop-up tool labels. Those only tell you the tool name (if you look at the help, it will tell you, with icons, what each tool is). The actual 'tool tips' are displayed along the bottom of the workspace for the selected tool.
As always, working through the tutorials in the help will clear up quite a bit.
As always, working through the tutorials in the help will clear up quite a bit.
Tool Tips...
And so it seems I have purchased "Nerdware" pretending to be "User Friendly".
"Pop-up tool labels" should be provided by default and optionally disabled at the users discretion.
Any complex program presented for general consumption should provide as much integrated assistance as possible to the user.
The old saw about "read the docs" and find a tutorial means the program author has no respect for his customer base.
There are many programs and tools with great promise and superior offerings that are essentially unusable because the learning curve is seriously crippled by the author or the vendor.
I will just mark this down as another adventure into "Nerdware" and a waste of my money.
AS is promoted and sold as simple to use by the average individual. I have years of experience as a programmer in various high and low level languages and some several OS platforms. This interface is basic "Nerdware" impossible to utilize without hours and hours of plowing around finding independent tutorials... That is not what I was offered...
"Pop-up tool labels" should be provided by default and optionally disabled at the users discretion.
Any complex program presented for general consumption should provide as much integrated assistance as possible to the user.
The old saw about "read the docs" and find a tutorial means the program author has no respect for his customer base.
There are many programs and tools with great promise and superior offerings that are essentially unusable because the learning curve is seriously crippled by the author or the vendor.
I will just mark this down as another adventure into "Nerdware" and a waste of my money.
AS is promoted and sold as simple to use by the average individual. I have years of experience as a programmer in various high and low level languages and some several OS platforms. This interface is basic "Nerdware" impossible to utilize without hours and hours of plowing around finding independent tutorials... That is not what I was offered...
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synthsin75
- Posts: 10254
- Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:20 pm
- Location: Oklahoma
- Contact:
Well I'll seriously try not to impugn your intelligence, so bear with me.
Finding independent tutorials?!!!
1)In the AS menu select 'help'.
2)Then select 'help...'.
3)Then select 'tutorials'
They're all there in a logical progression. AS is being taught to children, so if you couldn't be bothered to find this stuff, you probably don't have the patience to do animation anyway.
Is that really more important than software that does its job well?"Pop-up tool labels" should be provided by default and optionally disabled at the users discretion.
Actually I think this is more a case of a lazy user. I don't know of any program worth a damn that doesn't require learning how to use it.The old saw about "read the docs" and find a tutorial means the program author has no respect for his customer base. There are many programs and tools with great promise and superior offerings that are essentially unusable because the learning curve is seriously crippled by the author or the vendor.
But this is what really gets my goat. This makes it clear that you haven't even made an attempt to learn anything. No 'programmer' should be bitching about software that doesn't hold your hand.This interface is basic "Nerdware" impossible to utilize without hours and hours of plowing around finding independent tutorials...
Finding independent tutorials?!!!
1)In the AS menu select 'help'.
2)Then select 'help...'.
3)Then select 'tutorials'
They're all there in a logical progression. AS is being taught to children, so if you couldn't be bothered to find this stuff, you probably don't have the patience to do animation anyway.
Probably for the best. Good riddance.I will just mark this down as another adventure into "Nerdware" and a waste of my money.
Nealaz, don't get frustrated, just take a deep breath and read the tutes, it takes about 45 minutes and you will be thinking, " oh, it wasn't that hard after all, that's actually really easy".
I remember having a few moments of confusion when I first picked up AS, for which I was a little bit embarrassed for myself, I thought I could just open the software and start animating.
It was almost that easy, but I had to quickly become acquainted with some of the tricks, in particular making shapes by using the correct kidney shaped tool and pressing the space bar.
There are in fact specific tool instructions at the bottom of the screen on the left as Synthsin suggested.
I assume you already understand time lines and vectors already, this is not 'nerdy' technobabble but basic concepts of digital animation.
I am curious though how you would come up with a geeky term like 'nerdware' unless you are computer geek royalty yourself.
Stick with it, Nealaz and don't be shy to post, when you get over that hurdle, to say- 'yay I cracked it' it and it wasn't so hard after all, and BTW here is my first animation"
I remember having a few moments of confusion when I first picked up AS, for which I was a little bit embarrassed for myself, I thought I could just open the software and start animating.
It was almost that easy, but I had to quickly become acquainted with some of the tricks, in particular making shapes by using the correct kidney shaped tool and pressing the space bar.
There are in fact specific tool instructions at the bottom of the screen on the left as Synthsin suggested.
I assume you already understand time lines and vectors already, this is not 'nerdy' technobabble but basic concepts of digital animation.
I am curious though how you would come up with a geeky term like 'nerdware' unless you are computer geek royalty yourself.
Stick with it, Nealaz and don't be shy to post, when you get over that hurdle, to say- 'yay I cracked it' it and it wasn't so hard after all, and BTW here is my first animation"
Re: Tool Tips...
Ahem. At the risk of piling on, let me say I'd have fired your lazy ass a long time ago (assuming you ever worked for me -- I've been a team leader and supervisor of applications programmers for, oh, about 20 years prior to my retirement, and your attitude would have lasted about two days in my shop or you'd have been out on the street).nealaz wrote: I have years of experience as a programmer in various high and low level languages and some several OS platforms. This interface is basic "Nerdware" impossible to utilize without hours and hours of plowing around finding independent tutorials...
AS is about the easiest to learn animation software out there. I was animating with it in about 20 minutes, and in two hours had learned just about everything I ever needed to know (say about 95% of the program). Quite honestly, I'd be ashamed to come to a forum like this and admit the software was too difficult for me to use (heck, my wife uses it and even word processing stumps her most of the time).
But since you aren't embarrassed about admitting your inadequacies, I'm a little at a loss to understand what you want here. Are you looking for a refund? Or just want to complain? Or is there, somehow, a cry for help buried in among that crap you're writing? Because if the latter, then truly spending an hour or so working through the tutorials should show you how easy it is to use this stuff (and perhaps make you a convert). If any of the former, then don't waste our time.
DK,
and I raise you...
Seriously though nealaz, get off your high horse and stop with the "All applications do this and that" nonsense. I have MANY applications with NO TOOL TIPS.
There are no "rules" that dictate what an application MUST have to be considered "easy" to use or "professional". You are obviously to lazy to learn AS, (It seems to me that there might be a chip on your shoulder that could be blocking your view of the help files).
I have no sympathy for disappointment if you bought AS and find these tiny faults so devastating. If this is so HUGE you would have noticed it immediately in the FREE DEMO.
"Nerdware"??? What the heck is that? Never heard of it. Seriously. Have no clue. CHILDREN can learn this program... and they aren't ALL nerds. You haven't even given it a chance. You are so indignant about the vendor insulting you you will miss out on one of the coolest most fun applications ever created. Yes it takes a bit of adjustment to learn something new... but it's worth the effort.
What other kind of response do you expect on this forum when you post statements like this? It's called "baiting". You won't get agreement or positive responses.
Tool tips. Holy cow. I've heard a ton of complaints about AS, many I agree with to some degree, but NEVER in all my time here on this forum have I ever heard anyone complain so vehemently about the tool tips.
Chill dude. I don't even look at tool tips in my applications.
-vern
and I raise you...
Seriously though nealaz, get off your high horse and stop with the "All applications do this and that" nonsense. I have MANY applications with NO TOOL TIPS.
There are no "rules" that dictate what an application MUST have to be considered "easy" to use or "professional". You are obviously to lazy to learn AS, (It seems to me that there might be a chip on your shoulder that could be blocking your view of the help files).
I have no sympathy for disappointment if you bought AS and find these tiny faults so devastating. If this is so HUGE you would have noticed it immediately in the FREE DEMO.
"Nerdware"??? What the heck is that? Never heard of it. Seriously. Have no clue. CHILDREN can learn this program... and they aren't ALL nerds. You haven't even given it a chance. You are so indignant about the vendor insulting you you will miss out on one of the coolest most fun applications ever created. Yes it takes a bit of adjustment to learn something new... but it's worth the effort.
What other kind of response do you expect on this forum when you post statements like this? It's called "baiting". You won't get agreement or positive responses.
Tool tips. Holy cow. I've heard a ton of complaints about AS, many I agree with to some degree, but NEVER in all my time here on this forum have I ever heard anyone complain so vehemently about the tool tips.
Chill dude. I don't even look at tool tips in my applications.
-vern
Oh yeah Nealaz, I should mention , -and this will be our little secretI have years of experience as a programmer in various high and low level languages and some several OS platforms. This interface is basic "Nerdware" impossible to utilize without hours and hours of plowing around finding independent tutorials...
,I got kicked out of computer class at high school for not being nerdy enough, I was told to get out and not to come back. So I really don't think nerdiness has anything to do with it.
On the other hand, I am writing in this forum so maybe using AS turned me into a nerd without me realising YOIKS- although apparently Heyvern used to be a male supermodel and in the Olympic swim team and it it clearly hasn't affected him in any way.
Chucky! You promised never to tell anyone about that embarrassing period of my life! To have your speedo come off during a time trial is horribly embarrassing (but it did lead to the modeling career.)chucky wrote: although apparently Heyvern used to be a male supermodel and in the Olympic swim team and it it clearly hasn't affected him in any way.
-vern
More issues...
In the Help menu of AS 5.6:
1) Help does NOT work.
2) Online Tutorials... Does NOT work.
3) Check for Updates... Does NOT work.
None of them respond to being clicked?
1) Help does NOT work.
2) Online Tutorials... Does NOT work.
3) Check for Updates... Does NOT work.
None of them respond to being clicked?
Eeek , that sounds very weird. Sounds like a bad install. Help should open in your internet browser. Go to the AS program folder and see if the html help is in there, open with browser.
You may alternatively have a file association problem, oh no that's it, I'm totally out of geekspeek, back to you.
You may alternatively have a file association problem, oh no that's it, I'm totally out of geekspeek, back to you.
File Associations, etc
1) All are associated with IE 6
2) Clicking on any of the files opens IE:
a. Nothing in the address bar
b. Blank screen displayed.
2) Clicking on any of the files opens IE:
a. Nothing in the address bar
b. Blank screen displayed.
Yes, by all means try Firefox (actually, you'd be far better served using it as your default browser).
Without the help files (which also contain the tutorials) you will indeed be lost. You need -- let me rephrase that -- you MUST work through the tutorials. They aren't lengthy but they are essential to the understanding of how things work in AS. Once you've done them (and done them all, although I skipped masking because I knew I'd be doing any such work in post with AE) then things will make sense to you.
I've never heard of the help files not working properly, but with Internet Explorer NOTHING would surprise me (that's the most horrendous piece of coding ever written -- hundreds of thousands of bug fixes later and it STILL doesn't work most of the time).
Without the help files (which also contain the tutorials) you will indeed be lost. You need -- let me rephrase that -- you MUST work through the tutorials. They aren't lengthy but they are essential to the understanding of how things work in AS. Once you've done them (and done them all, although I skipped masking because I knew I'd be doing any such work in post with AE) then things will make sense to you.
I've never heard of the help files not working properly, but with Internet Explorer NOTHING would surprise me (that's the most horrendous piece of coding ever written -- hundreds of thousands of bug fixes later and it STILL doesn't work most of the time).