Help File

[LittleReg1]

The Help system in this product seems to be geared toward those who have deep programming skills, not just regular users like me. Every time I go into Help, I am searching for assistance with a particular task, not to learn how the application works. Help seems to be just a list of all the features and how the user is to engage them, not how to get things done. For example...

Google says that XYPlorer is a great tool for finding and managing duplicate files. One of the main reasons that users would want to use a duplicate file finder is to locate and eliminate duplicate files on their storage devices. This means that there would be a tool that would provide users with a set of options, such as omitting Date/Time or file types, etc., then the user would click a button and the tool would search the locations that the user designated and list out all the dupes and where they were located. From this list, user could select file desired for deletion. User could select multiple drives, multiple folders, etc., for the dupe finder to work from.

When I go to Help, however, all I see is a list of descriptions of what all the objects do - not how to solve problems or accomplish tasks. For example, how is user supposed to know that the word "Location" can mean more than one Location? Or does it? What is "Selected Locations" if user cannot choose more than one? Etc.

Do I have to find a new product - something easier to work with?

Thanks.

[phred]

There is a massive help file PDF available via https://www.xyplorer.com/download/XYplorerHelp.pdf which is easily searchable.

[LittleReg1]

This is indeed a "massive" file, but - again - it is simply a more detailed description of the features. It's not really "help" - only a functional definition. I went through everything I could find in re to locating duplicate files and could not make any sense of the texts. What I'm looking for is something that is task based:

Task: Locate and Delete Duplicate Files on Storage Devices (Files/Folders)

Step 1: Open the "Search Window" (or whatever it's called, since there is no label or title bar, and no button on the ribbon that has a corresponding popup) located (I guess, F12).
Step 2: Click the Find Files tab from the upper set of tabs.
Step 3: Click on the Dupes tab from the lower set of tabs.
Step 4: Apply exclusion filters to the search (Search will ignore all checked criteria).
Step 5: Go to the Name & Location tab from the lower set of tabs and enter all the locations that you want Search to browse.
Etc.

Since the above list is obviously very clumsy, and I can't figure out how to select multiple locations, it does me no good for a "Help" file to provide what amounts to only extended definitions of the features. Help is supposed to be *how* you do things, not just a list of what you *can* do.

Thanks.

[highend]

and I can't figure out how to select multiple locations

Selecting e.g. the Location field in the Find Files - Name & Location tab and pressing F1 (context sensitive help) leads to...

And which of these topics needs to be clicked on that page? Maybe "Multiple Location Search"?

The same could have been found by just entering "multiple" in the search field of the index tab of the help file as well...

[LittleReg1]

OK, that's what I'm talking about in the first place. I'm working with the task "remove duplicate files". Instead, the Help file assumes that I want to search on the term "multiple" for Multiple Locations because that is but one component of the configuration that the app has to have in place in order to perform this task. "Multiple Location Search" is a feature that may or may not be connected to finding duplicates. Instead, it is part of a set of features that have to be carefully linked in order to build a duplicate files set one piece at a time.

Instead, for example, in xplorer2, there is a button for Duplicates - a task-based feature - that launches a window expressly designed for finding duplicate files. It's not a subset of Searching, even though that's what is happening behind the scenes. It has only one dialog where all the criteria are stored for duplicate file detection, and there are plenty of features in the Results window where user can manage files. (I prefer XYplorer over xplorer2 for other reasons, however.)

The logic in XYplorer is upside-down. It starts with having to display something called an "Info Panel" - something user would usually associate with a fixed set of file or folder attributes, such as Properties, not with searches. User then has to deduce that since there is nothing in the interface that finds duplicate files directly, a search of the Help system is required. Using "Duplicate" as the search criterion, user is presented with a list of all the areas in the file where the term is used, ranked. The first entry renders the beginning of the process - the setting up of the criteria.

The section in question is entitled "Tab "Dupes" (Duplicate File Finder)". The inference is that it is here where user has all the information needed to find duplicate files. (There is a reference to a following section called "Image Hash" if special criteria are needed.) However, there is nothing in this section in re to searching across more than one storage device or folder. On what grounds would user have to believe that the ability to search multiple folders was possible if it were not included in the Dupes tab instructions?

This is where user has to blindly poke around the dictionary until something comes up in the Topics list: "more than one", "multiple", "many", etc. "Multiple Location Search" is a piece that is located in the "Tab "Name & Location"" area of the Help file, and its authors assume that users know to equate the tasks of "searching" and "finding duplicate files" so as to browse the entire Help system for Search features, then piece together the elements to perform the Dupes search.

The application's Help file would be more useful to the average user if there was an index of tasks that listed all of the areas of the Help file where configuring and executing the tasks had pertinent information instead of forcing user to group around a variety of features.

Thanks.

[highend]

The logic is to avoid duplicating every information <x> times. No, multiple locations isn't a feature bound specifically to duplicate file search, it belongs to all "find files / folders" tasks. It even has its own entry in the belonging help file subsection because of this.

So to answer the original question

Do I have to find a new product - something easier to work with?

If you don't like this "top down" help system style: Yes, you'd better find a different tool

[admin]

You can also check out usage examples linked here under "Duplicate File Finder": https://www.xyplorer.com/features.php

[LittleReg1]

Thanks! This is much more helpful.