Hello everyone!

I'm a support rep here at CoffeeCup and as such I hear a lot of different requests from customers on how we can improve our software and our support. I can come up with my own ideas about what I think would benefit the customer most, but I'd be positively delighted if I could get some feedback here on the forums, in this thread, about what you want most.

As a support rep, I can't guarantee I can make things like new types of software happen, but if you want better documentation, a new avenue for help, something streamlined, or a way to communicate with the higher-ups, I'm your man. Throw all of your ideas at me, regardless of what they are, and I'll review them and see what's in my power to make happen.

David,

I would like to see a way to use all the programs on pages that will validate. As an example, the photo gallery produces 13 validation errors.

Bill, I used the w3c validator for the newest photo gallery html page and had only 4 issues, and some of those were only warnings, not errors. With one exception, they all had to do with the fact that the html page produced by photo gallery did not have a valid doctype. The only true error was the use of an invalid tag </br>. If a break tag is to be used in xhtml, it should be <br /> and in html <br>


Maybe you used it on an older version, or from some other validator?

The other validation errors were for using closing tags for xhtml, with no xhtml doctype. If the code produced is inserted into an existing page, it would only validate if a xhtml doctype was chosen for that page. Since there is no real way to know what type of doctype any given user will use, it would be impossible to make the code validate for everyone.

The biggest benefit I could see helping with the photo gallery and other programs would be an undo and redo button. This would also work great with the visual site designer. Not everyone realizes there are keyboard shortcuts for that, and I don't think the standard keyboard shortcuts work for undo and redo in photo gallery.

Cliff,

I will download the latest, and test it.

Thanks

Bill,

I forgot to mention that when I tested, I used the "fix for active content" for IE. I do realize that if you do not use that option, a validator will indicate more errors because standard flash code has never ever been w3c compliant code. That is the same for any software that creates standard flash code, and not the fault of CoffeeCup.

When talking about suggestions for the software, how about adding the ability to jump to a new page when a coffeecup video player video has finished playing? Scenario: Someone views a training video, and can only go to the test page when the video has finished playing. Make sure the option can be turned off for those who don't need it. It would also help so that when a short video is finished, you can control what web page is next. Firestarter has that option.

What I would like to see is something that explains building a website in "layman's terms". It's just like going to the doctor and being diagnosed with a disease and him spouting medical terms at you. You walk out of there going "uh?". Someone needs to put together some sort of easy to understand instructions for those of us who know how to use a computer and can master pretty much any software program but isn't necessarily a computer "geek". I've done accounting work for 30 years and it seems so simple to me but over the years I've come to realize that not every one understands what a debit or credit is or the difference between a balance sheet and a P&L or how we got there. What I'm talking about is things like:

How to link an e-mail address & how it works
How to add a guest book and how it works
Here are the basics, (in plain terms), what code is and how it works
Etc., etc.

Basically something that says:

So you want ot build a website. These are the basics things
you need to know. It could even contain a small dictionary
with the different terms and what they mean.

Something that would even make it a little
easier for those who are somewhat technilogically
challenged, especially when it comes to things like "Code".
Maybe include some links that might be educational in things such as code, marketing your site, the best way to get your site up and running through the search engines or anything else that could be helpful to others like myself. Like me, I'm sure that most of us are fast learners but not all of us have the time it takes making phone calls, e-mailing or searching the net for help. Just pretend you're talking to your best friend, who doesn't know diddly.

All things considered I did manage to get my site up and running without much help but there is so much more I need to learn in order to make it worhtwhile.

I do love your sofware but I will say that most of what I read in the software "help" section or the answers I find in the forum seem more geared towards someone who already has some knowledge regarding the matter and is not geared to someone who basically has no idea what they are doing.

I think it would great if you could get the people in the forum to submit teachings or easier to understand instructions for the various knowledge bases needed for the different facets of web building and then compile them into a booklet that can be downloaded for your software users.

Sorry I'm so long winded but I wanted to make sure that I was explaining myself well enough. Let me know what you think.

An aspiring computer geek.
B. Lynch

Sounds like you're describing their book:
http://www.coffeecup.com/book/

billr:
When you create software that needs to cater to every possible user using one of any number of different doctypes, conventions, platforms, and languages, it's very difficult to get the output to validate 100% of the time. Our developers do their best, though, and I'll pass your validation concerns on to them.

B. Lynch:
Adam's right; everything you've mentioned in your post is covered in our book, "My Website is Better Than Yours." He already provided the link, but here it is again:

http://www.coffeecup.com/book/

Keep your suggestions coming, guys. I'd really like to adopt something from the community that I can make into a reality.

David,

I don't want to throw a wet blanket, but have you seen that we have a sticky post for software suggestions in every one of the software groups here in this public forum? And just above the Break room there is a topic wholly for new software ideas. Then again in the Ambassador area there is another such topic. I think there are software ideas in more places than it's possible to keep an eye on.

I appreciate it very much that you want to listen to peoples' ideas, so maybe a tour of the exsisting suggestions would be a good place to start.

Hi Inger,

I appreciate your concern and I apologize if I was unclear in my original post... my intention is not to get ideas for new software. I'm not a developer and I'm not in marketing, so ideas for new software aren't something I could even really handle.

I'm looking for information on what customers would like to see that supplements our software. Things that I, as a support rep, could create or provide avenues to; things like better documentation, video tutorials on using the software, question and answer columns... you know, things to help our existing customers rather than attract new ones.

As a support rep, helping existing customers is 80% of my job, after all.