Hi Alan,

I just want to comment that this "deep rooting" (so many clicks just to get a small paragraph of *real* information) is aggravating in the extreme to me too.

It's as if MS still feels that it has to hone the mousing capabilities of the users, like they did back when Windows first came out.

It is wholly counter productive, offering absolutely nothing to the reader except:
1) frustration;
2) optimized chances for missing stuff by easily failing to get back to where one started to resume the proper sequence;
3) a sore wrist. It is especially troublesome when the "Back" click fails to restore you at the point of initial 'exit', as happens in the "Error Messages" section.

It is especially aggravating when MS has clearly made the decision to no longer publish paper versions of the documentation!#$!@#!
The current practise is, at best, designed to help the authors with their maintenance of the material. Possibly it also gives the authors a sense of having done a great job at classifying/segmenting the material. Unfortunately, this comes at a great price for every READER of the material.

The whole .chm/help/whatever is in need of a redesign WITH THE READER AT THE FOREFRONT. Some factors that come to mind are:
1) Revision marking is badly needed and long overdue. Computers should give us more capability, not take away features found in paper and always so useful to any reader.
2) The ability to specify that 'links' should be expanded "in line" if so desired, so that the whole "deep rooting" simply disappears.
3) The repetition of material, or parts thereof, where appropriate and helpful to the topic. Surely it could be designed so that author could still maintain only a single 'version' of the paragraph(s) involved!
4) a 'standard' that at least a full 'page' of **real** information must be presented on any page. This 'page' should be defined as some sensible amount (750 words? minimum).
5) The ability to 'annotate' the text and then have it appear where annotated when later displayed along with the ability to carry the annotations forward from version to version of the particular help.
6) There is also a crying need to let the displaying program (I.E. or some variation of it) have its display properties segregated to each specific Help. Right now changing it for one changes it for all the rest and that is aggravating IN THE EXTREME!

All in all the state of Help generally is at the dark ages. It badly needs serious attention! Yet there is evidence - specifically in the form of the .CHM for the book "Hacker's Guide for VFP 7" (and VFP6 too) - that some attention in the design/creation of the content can go a long way to addressing these issues, even with today's software capabilites. That 'book' is a pleasure to use compared to VFP's own Help.

Thanks for bringing this up and letting me vent.

JimN

>Does anyone know of a service that will provide a complete printed set of the documetation for vfp8? I seem to spend more time clicking links of the online documentation than I do actually digesting what it has to say. The deep hierarchial rooting doesen't seem to help and it has gotten extremely aggravating to the point that the documentation is more of a disservice than anything else.
>
>I'd run down to Barnes and Noble to buy a beginner's/"for dummies" book on vfp8 but you already know how far I'd get with that.
>
>Is this one of Microsoft's ways of encouraging C#?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Alan