X-Edit setup could be improved for reviewers

[NorthEast]

I've just been testing out the send for review option from Flare v4 to X-Edit.
I think X-Edit is ok, but I think it could be made a lot easier for your reviewers to set it up and get going.

I sent a topic to a colleague who had never used a MadCap product, and watched them to see if they could get it all working. What happened was:

1. They received an email with the topic and a message saying:

Please take a look at the attached topic "Topic".
A quick way to do this is to double click the attachment and select 'Open in X-Edit Review'
If you don't have X-Edit Review installed, go to http://www.madcapsoftware.com and download it

2. They went to http://www.madcapsoftware.com. After spending a while looking around the home page for something that said "X-Edit", they couldn't find anything so clicked on Downloads.

3. After looking at the colourful and complex downloads diagram, they hovered around on the X-Edit Family option and asked me if that was the same as X-Edit Review (they didn't spot the * note tucked away at the bottom which told them this).

4. Then they filled in all their required personal details. They told me it was a pain to fill in all this information just to get a download.

5. After receiving the download email they downloaded and installed X-Edit.

6. Then they went back to my email, double-clicked on the attachment and clicked Open.

7. They selected the option Open for review/edit in X-Edit review, and clicked OK.

8. They were prompted to save the file, which caused them a bit of confusion as they'd chosen to open the file (not save it). Why do you need to save the file before you open it in X-Edit Review?

9. They saved the file and it opened in X-Edit review.

They got there in the end, but I couldn't help thinking the whole process was a lot harder than downloading something like Adobe Reader.

I think some things that would improve the process are:

- Include a direct link to download X-Edit Review in the email message, or at the very least have a clear link on the home page.

- Don't ask people to fill in their personal details to download X-Edit Review.

- I would like to change the default email message to include my own standard text. Although you can edit the message before you send the topic, it doesn't remember the changes the next time you send a topic. So, if I have any standard text that I want to include, then I have to add it every single time.

- Not needing to save the topic file before you can open it.

[trent the thief]

Personally, I would like to see a companion version that runs on *NIX desktops. A large number of my contributors/reviewers don't have a windows box. Various developers use three flavours of unix.

[trent the thief]

I've just been testing out the send for review option from Flare v4 to X-Edit.
I think X-Edit is ok, but I think it could be made a lot easier for your reviewers to set it up and get going.

/snipz be here
I think some things that would improve the process are:

- Include a direct link to download X-Edit Review in the email message, or at the very least have a clear link on the home page.

- Don't ask people to fill in their personal details to download X-Edit Review.

- I would like to change the default email message to include my own standard text. Although you can edit the message before you send the topic, it doesn't remember the changes the next time you send a topic. So, if I have any standard text that I want to include, then I have to add it every single time.

- Not needing to save the topic file before you can open it.

Ditto on all four counts.

Allow me to suggest that Xedit review files have some sort of memory. When I send a topic to a reviewer, it'd sure be a nice thing if the file "knew" where it lived and could be sent to me without requiring the user to add the To:.

[kelly1210]

Ditto for us as well. Our reviewers are very excited to begin using this tool, but as we figure out the steps they'll have to take to get started, we're disappointed with all the effort each one will have to go through. I'm afraid this initial rigmarole will have them balking at using it all and we really want them to! Can we simplify ASAP??? And, what happened to X-Edit Express!? That was much simpler for review-only tasks.

[sharon burton]

Yeah, you guys are right - the installation process for reviewers could have been lots easier. We're working on fixes now so when we release an update, it's going to be lots easier for your reviews to download and install Reviewer. We aren't publically talking updates dates yet, but we know this is an issue and we're making it easier, I promise.

As to where X-Edit Express went, the feedback we got in the first round of beta was it was *way* too complicated for the reviewers - it did too much. We looked at the product, ran some ideas by a few people and redesigned X-Edit.

Now we have the full X-Edit, X-Edit Contributor (more of the features that were in Express), and X-Edit Review (much simpler and easier to use for busy reviewers.

We're listening carefully to this thread. We know how much easier this product family can make your lives and the lives of your reviewers and contributors.

[Diana_BB]

That's great news, Sharon! Thanks for the quick response.

To add to what Kelly said, she and I have been working with our engineers to implement X-Edit as a reviewing system. Frankly, their eyes bugged out at the download size of the X-Edit Family, which is more than 90 MB.

I'd love it if the engineers could go straight to a X-Edit Review page from a review message to download and install it--very intuitive. They're super smart, but they don't want to think for this. They want the magic to be in place.

Thanks!
Diana

[RamonS]

This is software development and customer-focus at its best! Thanks for listening and acting upon.

[NorthEast]

Yep, thanks for looking into this.

[peregrine]

Another bit that's confusing to the folks we've tested this with - they will only need X-Edit Review, but the download gives them the trial version of the entire X-Edit family. It's unclear to them in the download process whether they will be able to use X-Edit Review after the trial period ends. Also, in our shop, we don't really want our reviewers playing with all the tools of X-Edit! We only want them to do simple annotations, nothing more for now. If there is any way for them to download ONLY X-Edit Review, that would be great.

[kelly1210]

Ann's description of her experience is exactly what we're dealing with as well -- she just explained it better.

[daphna]

I will eagerly await a patch as I think X-Edit is too confusing for reviewers and complicates, rather than eases, workflow. For the meantime, we will not be using X-X-Edit Review.

A couple of enhancements I've reported:

- Cannot exclude content tagged with conditions from output.
- If there is a snippet associated with the topic being sent out for review, images in the snippet do not appera in the review topic (shows up as missing image link). Also, when using X-Edit, reviewers cannot edit content in the associated snippet.

[peregrine]

We will also be waiting for a patch. I'll also be requesting another enhancement to take care of this: If I add my own annotation to a topic, then send it out for review, the reviewer sees my annotation in X-Edit Review as a plain text paragraph. I haven't tested whether annotations placed in the middle of paragraphs interrupt the text. Madcap, I leave this for you to test! (It certainly makes the text confusing for the reviewers.)

[sharon burton]

Re Annotations in topics showing up as text for the reviewer, can you submit this as a bug, please? I have not seen this issue and I've played a lot with this feature. I've never seen this.

Not saying it's not happening, but I've not seen it.

We're working on making things easier, folks. Promise. This feedback is so useful for us. We can't build tools that do what you need without your help.

[kelly1210]

Hey Sharon,

I got an email from MadCap today announcing the products again, but the X-Edit Review download is still combined with the X-Edit "family" (or appears to be initially) and requires an email to MadCap to receive.

When will we be able to get a simple, single download for X-Edit Review that we can distribute to our reviewers?

Thanks.

[Steve_SCL]

Hey Sharon,

I got an email from MadCap today announcing the products again, but the X-Edit Review download is still combined with the X-Edit "family" (or appears to be initially) and requires an email to MadCap to receive.

When will we be able to get a simple, single download for X-Edit Review that we can distribute to our reviewers?

Thanks.

I'd like to second that request. I don't want all the engineers in the company to have to install 30-trials of software we don't want to use. That just feels clumsy.

It would be nice to have the clean, freeware X-Edit Review as a stand-alone download. That would feel like a good service to your customers. It certainly adds value to the Flare/Blaze tools since they are not going to be widely available outside the tech writing team.
You could even include promotional messages about the add-on versions and a built in link to download the trial software if the reviewers do want to look at it.

[sharon burton]

We can't do everything at once (darn it!) but we're working on making it better. No dates promised, but it's going to get slightly easier soon.

[trent the thief]

Gee.... Maybe it'll have a plug-in for flare so we won't have to change apps to use it.

[RamonS]

We can't do everything at once (darn it!) but we're working on making it better. No dates promised, but it's going to get slightly easier soon.

Maybe it is just my naive view on things, but repackaging the executable and creating a new plain simple link for download shouldn't be that difficult.

[Var]

Hi all,

As always, thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, separating X-Edit Review from X-Edit is not as trivial as it sounds. The features are very integrated.

However, we did make the download process simpler by not requiring reviewers to sign up to receive the download. Now, potential reviewers just go directly to the download link that explains what they are downloading and why.

Thanks
Var

[kelly1210]

Var,

Do you mind inserting the URL for that link here? There are several pages involved in the X-Edit section of the site and if you could pinpoint it for us, that would be great.

Thanks!

[trent the thief]

Hi Kelly,

That link is in the email sent with the review topic. On the site, it is still the same.

[peregrine]

Hi Var,

can you clarify for me, then, that after the 30-day trial our reviewers will still be able to use X-Edit Review? If it's that tightly integrated with X-Edit, this will be a concern.

[trent the thief]

Hi,

There is only one X-Edit. How it functions after installation depends on the license key. If you install with the full license, you have the whole thing operating.

If you install and run past the trial, only the review functionality will operate. You'll be fine for reviewing.

[Var]

Hi all,

When there is an update to Flare V4/Blaze - the default text in the topic review email stating go to http://www.madcapsoftware.com and download X-Edit review, will change and link directly this downlaod page http://www.madcapsoftware.com/downloads ... eview.aspx . This change will bypass the sign up process and should provide more clarity on what the reveiwer needs to do.

For now you can modify that text message and include the above url when you send topics for review.

Hope this helps and does not further confuse the situation.

Thank you,

Var Galpchian

[kelly1210]

Thanks, Var. Good info. I knew there was another path to it, but wasn't sure where.