Please make documentation available on THIS forum.

[Alan_B]

It is very easy for beginners to ignore, and for me to forget, Mr. Ron's Pinned post which is at the end of pinned posts under "Discussion" only.

"Looking for help with CCleaner?"

and even more inconspicuous in the smaller print is the sub heading "Your first stop is docs.piriform.com".

It is all overshadowed by a great big forbidding "No Entry" red cross because it has been "pinned"

 

I suggest it would be far better to place a direct link at the head of every forum in the same region as

Announcement Forum Rules

Posted by TwistedMetal

I have just answered a very simple post suggesting that CCleaner should be given a means to shutdown Windows.

Had Mr. Ron's post been shown on the "Suggestions" forum the beginner would have known about the existing capability.

He, and possible thousands of other users, could have had the benefit of this facility for years if only they knew.

 

Many people do not even know that there is documentation available.

 

Actually it is NOT available unless you have the password or are very lucky.

 

To find the URL I Googled "ccleaner help file" like I usually do in such situations because :-

I never remember Mr. Ron's post when I need it and,

I know it is somewhere OTHER than //forum.piriform.

 

There were "About 5,700,000 results"

Most links were broken because a password is needed to enter.

 

The top result read

www.piriform.com/ccleaner/help

and took me to

http://support.piriform.com/index.php?loginresult=0&group=default

and horror of horrors, I had to logon and my password is NOT recognised ! ! ! !

 

Another result took me to

http://www.pchelpforum.com/general-application-tutorials/61978-ccleaner-how.html

On this the fourth link took me to the same login hell,

The fifth link took me to http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/faq

This had a promising link "Where is the help file?" Getting excited now ! !

Clicked and got a bit frustrated at a click wasting page that merely reminded me what I was clicking for

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/faq/general/where-is-the-help-file

Clicked again on

"Click here to go to the help section homepage."

BACK INTO LOGIN HELL.

 

It seems to me an unwise act by Piriform to break about 5,700,000 links that have been posted in good faith by sites such as www.pchelpforum.com.

 

I can understand that Network managers with up to 100 users who pay $2499 for Professional Support services are entitled to priority support,

and free-loaders such as myself should be excluded from their support page,

but it would be better if their support site was not the same as the destination for 5,700,000 familiar links.

 

Regards

Alan

[Winapp2.ini]

I agree.. I've tried to add information into the FAQ's I've made for the respective cleaners to prevent redundant posts, but this would be a welcomed extra step.

[Andavari]

There is a documentation link on the help page. Clicking 'Online Help' in CCleaner goes right to it, from there it's a simple matter of reading and clicking upon 'Documentation' and in my opinion it's far more obvious than a random pinned topic on the forum.

[DennisD]

For the less observant it could possibly be a bit bigger on the CCleaner UI.

 

A new button beneath the "Options" button maybe.

[Capman]

For the less observant it could possibly be a bit bigger on the CCleaner UI.

 

A new button beneath the "Options" button maybe.

I totally agree with what Dennis says. Having never used the Online Help link in the program itself, I thought I would have a look to see how obvious it was. Took a few seconds to find it all alone in that bottom left corner.

 

I wouldn't have a clue where to start writing a program, but if I could I would make everything obvious so that people find it easy to use and would carry on using it in the future.

[hazelnut]

Quite a few of the mods, and members, have it in their signature.

[Alan_B]

There is a documentation link on the help page. Clicking 'Online Help' in CCleaner goes right to it, from there it's a simple matter of reading and clicking upon 'Documentation' and in my opinion it's far more obvious than a random pinned topic on the forum.

 

You are right, there is a link on the bottom left which I have never seen before.

 

You are so horribly wrong.

It takes me to

http://support.piriform.com/index.php?loginresult=0&group=default

and there I am stranded because NONE SHALL PASS WITHOUT A PASSWORD

and it does not recognise mine.

 

I suggest that almost none of the gazillions of CCleaner users can use the bottom left corner link.

This imposition of a password has not only broken 5,700,000 website links,

it has broken every unzipped/installed copy of CCleaner.exe ! ! !

 

@Hazel

You have a very vivid and attractive signature.

Is that a fresh paint job just for me ! ! !

 

My first reactions were that I had not noticed the signature links,

and that you were the only 1 out of 3 Mods here with such a link,

but then I saw that Andavari has one also, but in a subtle "darker shade of pale"

 

For me a pleasant surprise (and secret disappointment) that neither of your links are broken by the need for a password.

 

This topic was inspired by Predreus posting his suggestion

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=32648

 

Had a prominent Documentation link been positioned immediately under the Forum Rules at the head of every sub-forum,

then Predreus could have found the answer to his needs before he even thought of posting the suggestion.

 

That is not the only instance of some-one posting a suggestion for what is already provided.

 

There are actually two very different but related issues.

 

There has been little discussion of the fact that links are broken.

This not only affects all the internet sites that direct people to this site,

but also the built in link on the bottom left of CCleaner.

IN ADDITION I guess other Piriform products such as Defraggler, Recuva, Speccy etc. could also now have broken "Online Help" links.

 

Altering the built in link with the next software release should NOT be considered because :-

Some people prefer to stick with a release that works the same as always;

Some people cannot upgrade because they have on older O.S. that is no longer supported;

5,700,000 links will remain broken and cause frustration instead of feeding Piriform with new customers.

 

Regards

Alan

[DennisD]

That really surprised me that the CCleaner link now takes you to priority support login.

 

Where it goes is up to the devs of course, but not having tried that link for a long time I assumed it went here ...

 

http://www.piriform.com/docs/ccleaner

 

You learn something new every day.

[Andavari]

You are right, there is a link on the bottom left which I have never seen before.

 

You are so horribly wrong.

It takes me to

http://support.pirif...0&group=default

and there I am stranded because NONE SHALL PASS WITHOUT A PASSWORD

and it does not recognise mine.

I seriously don't know what you're missing on that page, it works perfectly fine for me to read the Docs site. A screenshot is better than mixing words of who's "right" or "wrong" as I've only simply told you exactly what I did after initially reading this topic to get to the Docs site rather effortlessly!

 

Screenshot (and do note when I took the screenshot I wasn't even logged into this forum just to make sure):

Click to Enlarge:

[Augeas]

Yes, click on Online Help and it takes you (or me) to http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/help?v=3.05.1408&l=1033 where I can logon for priority support (if I had it) or just go to other help options, including documentation. I don't know how others are getting to support.piriform pages, but I guess they are.

[Alan_B]

I seriously don't know what you're missing on that page, it works perfectly fine for me to read the Docs site. A screenshot is better than mixing words of who's "right" or "wrong" as I've only simply told you exactly what I did after initially reading this topic to get to the Docs site rather effortlessly!

 

Screenshot (and do note when I took the screenshot I wasn't even logged into this forum just to make sure):

I see your screenshot, and I raise you one ! !

 

Our difference is that I use LastPass and you do not.

 

The problem is a lack of standards or compliance there-to.

When I go for on-line help I do not at first see your screen.

Instead I see my attached screenshot,

and now that I scrutinise I see "Documentation" near the bottom in a paler shade of grey,

but the whole emphasis is upon my need to login and the fact I made an invalid attempt.

Incidentally, bottom right "Terms of Use" is far more noticeable than "Documentation"

 

When I use the browser Back Arrow the pixels jump around and then I see this same thing again.

Back Arrow a second time and once more Lastpass recognises the Piriform site and enters my user-name in the field which Piriform has labelled for humans as E-mail, but presumably is Tagged so that LastPass fills in the wrong data. LastPass also fills in the password which it has learnt for this site.

LastPass normally autofills the fields and then Autologin which took me to the INVALID screen,

after after two successive failures it refrained from Autologin so I could see the screen with high visibility "Documentation"

 

Piriform and LastPass seem to have slightly different interpretations of what and where to transfer authentication data,

and unfortunately I fall through the cracks ! !

Other people may have alternative password managers and they too could come unstuck.

 

Regards

Alan

[Nergal]

Alan_B Yes many of us added the docs site to our signature, I for one did it after seeing this thread, and then noticed @hazelnut's singature and wholesale stole it.

 

I also get what Alan gets at http://www.piriform.com/support not what Andavari gets. http://www.piriform.com/docs is listed at the bottom of piriform pages, but neither of these show on the forum.

 

For now we will have to just deal with it being in our signatures and in a sticky somewhere (I believe that there is one), as it will take a change in the CSS of the forum theme to added it to the forum.