I am really disappointed in the number of whiners and complainers that are populating these forums lately. My advice to those who are dissatisfied with the Coffee Cup programs is to vote with your feet and move on to something else and stop wasting the time of those of us who are genuinely attempting to develop our skills at website development & design. If you have issues with Coffee Cup contact the management team themselves with your complaint as they are readily accessible and stop clogging this forum with your rants...

It would also help a lot if people would actually read the manual...

Is there a manual for Firestarter?

Well, ok, the help files

I think the complaining has stopped but we're still posting at the bottom of them

Have you seen the Help files for Firestarter?

As the self-appointed Complainer-in-Chief I feel that a lot of the posts you refer to would not have happened if we had better reference material. The answers to most of my problems came from the support team. (A grand bunch, both knowledgeable and prompt!) For example, Cesar told me today in an email how to save my changed work from Firestarter to certain directories so that VSD can tell that I changed it.

I still need to Remove/Add Files in some cases.

All this goes under the heading of "Undocumented Features".

And, no, I am not going to "vote with my feet" and walk away from the financial investment I have made in this software. I think it is basically very good. Each program does what it is claimed to do and does it easily. It just needs to be better integrated. I am trying to write my own notes so help me update my work in the future.

[/rant]

Bass4Uphill
Have a god dag

I'm glad I was able to help you out with the most recent issue you had. We try to keep the documentation up to date, but with only a few technicians and the volume of emails we receive it can be a bit tough to constantly monitor for changes.

Also, with over 26 different programs, the interfaces are always changing as new features are added. It would take forever to modify each help file with new screenshots of any outside programs since the entire application would need to be recompiled, so we save the help file updates for when an entirely new version is ready.

We're hoping to move to online documentation, rather than built-in help files, so we can provide real-time updates whenever a new version is released. Hopefully in the near future, we'll have a dynamic way to generate a PDF file from the online help -- if you want a printed copy.

Anyway, all this is within the works. We just have to figure out the logistics.

I guess I am one of the whiners and complainers? Since the updated versions of VSD and HTML 2008 both crash, do not work as they are supposed to and generally suck, and I complain about it?

Don't worry, I HAVE moved on to using xsitepro 2. While you hobbyists screw around with buggy software in the hopes that someone will address your issue, I have done a complete site redesign using xsitepro 2, which is faster, easier, fewer bugs even on release, than the brain hemorrage-inducing VSD and HTML 2008 from CoffeeCup.

Anyone who would come onto a forum and criticize those with legitimate upload, crashing, random file corruption, and layout problems on the software side, and attempt to reduce it all to "read the friggin manual" does a grave disservice to those of us, like myself, who have spent $200+ on Coffeecup software, to have our legitimate complaints ignored or responded to very slowly.

Sorry, I only have a few hours per week to work on my website. Once VSD corrupted my files, for reasons tech support could not beging to ewxplain, there was just no way I could have any faith in using a Coffeecup product as the platform for my web development.

I am still using flash form builder and some other add on Coffeecup apps I own (I own all but the latest 2 or 3 products). VSD and HTML did not used to be buggy, crashy and 25 hours of work-corrupty. Cripes, I was ready to go back to Dreamweaver MX!

xsitepro 2 is what I have migrated to, and even though it was just released, CoffeeCup should buy it, study it , and use it to improve their once-best-in-class product.

Woof. Slurp. An apt simile, Tom!

I am new to the add-on programs (other than VSD) so I put my troubles down to Madam Ruth, er, I mean my inexperience in using them. I have promised myself to let the gypsies in support make their magic signs first, before I go to the forum. Hmmm, maybe I could then share my solutions on the Forum, rather than my problems.

What do y'all think of that idea?


Flop with software in NC

You lost me at Madam Ruth.

Atlascott, whatever you decide to go with, I hope it serves you well. I honestly use the add-on type of fun apps (& Form Builder) more than the HTML editors as well, and those alone can make shelling out the dough for the big CC software packs still worthwhile. We can hope future updates will resolve some issues you've might run across. The recent VSD crashing seems to be much more hit & miss than other bugs/issues. Some see it almost consistently while others never have a problem. My only request is that you try to refrain from replying to other's posts for help by simply telling them to buy other software (as you already have). I understand your frustration, but it's not constructive in trying to track down the actual problem and I see it as more of a personal mission to get even.