So, how do I stop Help Center sucking?

overhope

Okay, maybe I'm being unbelievably stupid here, but is there any way to stop Help Center running off to the Net every time I want to know the slightest little thing and taking several lifetimes to drag a load of unrelated bumf from whichever deep hole it's sequestered in?

bigc

Don't use it

overhope

<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />



The only thing that seems to make a difference is telling Internet Connect not to connect when necessary, which is fair enough, but Mail isn't quite smart enough to tell me I'm not connected and sits there like a dumb s***...



Ho-hum.



Although, I have to say that's the only thing that's annoyed me in a solid day of playing with Jaguar, and it is my first X install...



Update: I've got some speed out of it now by patiently clicking on each category and allowing it to retrieve the most recent information: I suspect that it's the initial cataloguing of data that takes so long. Obviously all those Force Quits weren't helping...



[ 08-26-2002: Message edited by: Overhope ]</p>

bee gees

What do you need the help for anyway?

Take a hammer and whack the thing like I know you want to.

Actually it's a standard practice by our company to screw our customers. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />

mattyqp

I did a clean install of "Jagwire" on my wife's TiBook 800 (not DVI), and it's great--except for one major thing:

THE HELP CENTER BLOWS.



Same problems as everyone else here--infinite spinning color balls and flat out hang ups.



I guess X is so intuitive, no one needs help?



Good news is that the Ti book runs much zippier now. It's still money well spent, as long as I don't have to pay ANOTHER full price for the bug fix. Oh wait, sorry, that was Windows 98SE.



[ 08-27-2002: Message edited by: mattyqp ]</p>

overhope

Information from various sources (and personal experience) seems to show Help Viewer getting a bit quicker: it looks like it caches a bunch of stuff from the remote server, and I suspect that the sheer number of requests over the weekend were swamping it: things do seem to run a lot faster now, and it's almost usable.



One thing I have done is be very patient and click on each category in turn whilst connected so it can grab everything it wanted (lots of beachball time), but I still find when I'm offline that some information is only available over the Net, and Help Viewer wants to connect to get it.



I'd really prefer to have it archived locally, and be able to schedule an update when it's not so critical...

artman @_@

Well, I haven't upgraded yet (I'm poor). But it seems that these bugs in Help Center and others will make me wait a while now...(with bated breath)...



One question overall (beyond just Apple)...



Why, oh why does every web site/software company/computer company believe that everyone has DSL or a cable modem? Many don't and I find their arrogance/ignorance toward us po' mo' fo's who still have a dial-up connection...give us some OPTIONS please!

squash

My guess Artman is that it helps companies discover what things are too hard and people need help on. Without some sort of online help, they have no real idea of keeping track of things that could be made simpler. Just a guess <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />

aquatic

Artman I hear that, being a country bumpkin out in the boonies of Vermont. No town water, cable, DSL, etc. Luckily I'm going to college. Of course that certainly won't help my money situation



Where did Apple Guides go? Help Center is oriented around you knowing what you're looking for. That is the difference between a tutorial (Guide) and a "Reference."



Apple Guides were great.

artman @_@

[quote]Originally posted by SQUÅSH:

<strong>My guess Artman is that it helps companies discover what things are too hard and people need help on. Without some sort of online help, they have no real idea of keeping track of things that could be made simpler. Just a guess <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>



ME: Hello Apple Support, for some reason, everytime I try to use your Help Center I have a beachball spinning and spinning and nothing happens...why?



APPLE: It may be that it is trying to contact our servers for new help information, updates and content for the Help Center via your internet connection.



ME: I have a dial-up connection...



APPLE: Get a cable modem or DSL...thank you...goodbye.

overhope

Given that the Help files are all HTML, and most seem to weigh in at under 8K in size, DSL isn't that much of an advantage: I still think the botteneck is further up the chain.



And I'd still prefer to have some control over Help Viewer's behaviour.

kcmac

The first time I used Help it was really slow. This is on my cable modem. Used it today and it works reasonably fast. Don't know what the difference is. This is on my iBook 500. I did shut it completely down last night because i forgot my power cord and my battery got really low.

gardenofearthlydelights

Help Center does seem to get faster with more use. Someone above mentioned that it could be cached. Maybe it downloads the files it needs. I clicked on each help topic a few days ago, and now it does seem to start up faster, although not "instantaneously".

idjeff

I read on one of the other forums that all you need to do is a get info on your hardrive, go to "content index" and click "index now". It worked like a charm <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />