Compressor 2 documentation input wanted

Question

The Apple documentation team for pro video applications would like to know what you think about the electronic help that comes with Compressor 2:
• How often do you use the Compressor Help? Under what circumstances do you use it most?
• How do you find what you're looking for in Compressor Help: table of contents, index, skimming, PDF links, PDF search?
• What do you like about it most?
• What is missing?
• Are there any particular examples of manuals or documentation that you consider to be good models for the Compressor manual?
• What do you think is the most difficult feature/concept to grasp in Compressor?
• What's the most frustrating experience you've had with the Compressor documentation?
• Do you prefer electronic or print documentation?

Answer 1

Hi Guys
Let say first of all that Apples Pro Apps have changed my life. I used to be a PC user until Final Cut Pro came along. I made the switch and have never looked back. Now to your questions.
1• How often do you use the Compressor Help? Under what circumstances do you use it most?
- I use Compressor almost every day and am quite confident with it's settings so I hadn't used the help files for some time, that is until Compressor 2, where I have been using help occassionally to get used to the new interface and explore the new options.
2• How do you find what you're looking for in Compressor Help: table of contents, index, skimming, PDF links, PDF search?
- I generally start with PDF search, and if I can't find what I'm looking for I go to the index.
3• What do you like about it most?
- I can generally find what I'm looking for pretty quickly, and if I can't its probably not in the help files.
4• What is missing?
- that's a tricky one. Personally I would have liked to see a lot more information about Standards Conversion. The manual describes what the tabs do but doesn't really take you through the process of how to successfully achieve your goal. I wanted to do a PAL-NTSC conversion, I read the files, all made sense, did the conversion - it didn't work. Because I didn't go thru and check every part of every setting. It was also incredibly slow, which is a known issue with Compressor 2 so I won't bore with that. I would have liked to see some examples of the steps and settings required for standards conversion. This is just one example but I have found this in other aspects od other Pro-App manuals too - scripting in DVDSP 3&4 for example. Although everything is described in many cases there is a fundamental leap required between in info supplied in the manual and how the practically apply the info to your project. This is where these forums are invaluable - when I get stuck on a problem and can't solve it via the manual, I turn to the forums, which in conjunction with the manual gets me to where I want to go.
5• Are there any particular examples of manuals or documentation that you consider to be good models for the Compressor manual?
I think the Final Cut Pro manual gets pretty close. Once again I haven't needed to refer to it for a long time but when I did I seem to remember always being able to solve my problem - I didn't start using the forums intensively until I began using DVDSP and Compressor intensively and I use FCP every day also.
6• What do you think is the most difficult feature/concept to grasp in Compressor?
- Coming from the previous release I think the interface was pretty daunting, the new release has addressed this very well. I think that it's hard to appreciate what you don't undersatnd about transcoding until you need to work outside the presets to acheive your results and then its a steep learning curve. Like anything though, the more you challenge yourself the more you learn.
7• What's the most frustrating experience you've had with the Compressor documentation?
- I recently needed to create a mixed angle DVD for a client and after going over and over the manuals for both DVDSP and Compressor and rigidly following all the requirements for encoding the mpegs I was repeatedly unsuccessful, as I was with several other encoding applications. Eventually I was successfull encoding the footage thru QT mpeg exporter. I feel that although on the surface of things Compressor should be able to perform the function required to produce the mpegs I needed for the job, and all the documentation stated that it would, on a practical level it did not. It made me wonder whether the process had ever been tested before the applications release. Which did make me wonder how many other times this may also be the case.
8• Do you prefer electronic or print documentation?
I like having both - I would rather read of paper than the screen so if I can look something up via the bo