Bring back the real (offline, .chm) help!

[RKanarek]

Greetings,

As I know more than most, life isn't fair. For a relevant example, consider Microsoft. They make a bloated crappy office suite that lacks any documentation, yet they seem to have met with a "certain" amount of market success. SoftMaker makes (or made) a properly documented, far more wonderful office suite, yet SoftMaker is rewarded with, as I understand it, a slightly lower level of success. Surely, who could blame dear Mr. (or is it doctor?) Kotulla if he were to spend is time waggling his fists in anger and shouting invectives at the heavens. I certainly wouldn't. But I do blame him from stripping SMO of its proper offline local help. That is going too far!

We SoftMaker'ians are an odd lot. We like -- and even read! -- our manuals, and we, or at least I, like our .chm help. Wont you put SMO's offline help back immediately?

I'd also be interested in knowing what was intended to be gained by removing SMO's offline help. You folks are still producing PDF manuals and have installed what should have been the local help system onto your servers, so no money was saved by not producing help information. You've just made it more expensive for SM by needing to host it, and more expensive and difficult to access for your customers. Who is wining? The interconnecting telecommunications companies?

Put the product help back were it belongs: with the product!

[SuperTech]

Thanks for your post. I have forwarded this improvement suggestion.

[HumboldtSteve]

I heartily second this suggestion.

[Woody44]

I also agree. Real people often use computers in places where they don't have an Internet connection.

[ChalkyW64]

+1

[lgsl]

I agree too.

[Woody44]

I suppose the work-around is to download the entire user manual (for each program: TextMaker, PlanMaker, and Presentations) and keep it (them) on your hard drive. Having built-in, context-sensitive help would be a lot better.