[Forum] When will the 4.0 Manual Be Put Online

[Fishman620]

Hi

I went to look for the 4.0 manual but I do not see it, only 3.8. something is available.
Is there a scheduled date when it will be released?

Thanks

Brandon

[gnatster]

Seems to be quite the common question. Already 2 other recent threads on the same issue.

The sad thing is there is no posted schedule and others will tell you to post your questions on the forums. There are a few How To's as Blog posts but they are not indexed nor easily searchable. As a technical writer by trade I find the lack of a manual with the "Gold" release yet another reason that this is "Gold" in name only.

[Loco.M]

What do you need in the manual?
the 3.8 version will show you how to update/install
if you're asking about fictional questions, there are a few blog post, search for Wayne Luke's post
or check youtube, I see a few admins have started making video's for their members.

[Fishman620]

A manual would be nice so I know for instance what variables control what things on the boards with out having to guess.
Hope they come out with something, it just would be nice to have a guide.

[Lynne]

A manual would be nice so I know for instance what variables control what things on the boards with out having to guess.
Hope they come out with something, it just would be nice to have a guide.

Like what? It may be a 3.8 manual, but it has most all of the same settings in there. Sure, there are some additional settings, but I'll bet 90% are the same.

[Fishman620]

OK, I will take a look at the 3.8 manual. It's cool if you are right and I will be psyched about it.

Thanks man

[sailvayu]

It is frustrating not having a manual and I hate to say it but the VB team telling us just to use the 3.8 manual is like saying there is nothing new in the 4.0 release. I am frustrated by the lack of information on the blog and CMS part of the program. I am disappointed in reading how we should just use the old manual and forget about a new one. Not everyone who uses this software is a programmer. Some us are just learning Oh yeah and search the forum

[vivamexico55]

It is frustrating not having a manual and I hate to say it but the VB team telling us just to use the 3.8 manual is like saying there is nothing new in the 4.0 release. I am frustrated by the lack of information on the blog and CMS part of the program. I am disappointed in reading how we should just use the old manual and forget about a new one. Not everyone who uses this software is a programmer. Some us are just learning Oh yeah and search the forum

Search for Don Nakamura's PDF articles on the CMS. This is something that should be included on the instalation along with the stylevar visual dictionary.

No, using 3.8 manual is not good enough for VB4 if you are going to use CMS, yet there is a big amount of essential info in the vbulletin website, it should be no problem to include it on default install. Cheers

[sailvayu]

I have download and read every thing I could find on here in PDF files. I am not sure I read what you are talking about because some of the docs do not list an author. What I have read is helpful but is more about what things are not how to do anything. I wonder if the programmers who write these docs could really use them if that is all the information they had. Sorry I am not a programmer and maybe I am just stupid but I am having a hard time making any of this do simple things. I can see it can be done as I see others have made there stuff work but I am having a hard time. So yes I am frustrated It just is surprising that the software has been released without a manual. It is a great package and looks like just what I want but it is useless if I cannot figure out how to use it. The best software in the world is useless if the end user cannot figure it out. And to tell folks to just go search for the answer is sort of like flipping them the finger IMHO. I searched using the info you provided and came up with nothing. Sorry if I am venting here but this is where I end up after scratching my head trying to figure this out and then i am asked to go search. I am not trying to be difficult here but I have a feeling the VB folks don't "get it"

[vivamexico55]

Check this:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/entry.php?2386-Getting-Started-with-CMS-Documentation-Files-%28PDF%29

The truth is that you're going to have to do a lot of reading through the vbulletin blogs to get useful info that could be contained in a manual, about the CMS.

If you have more specific questions you should make a thread about them. For what it's worth, I too worry about the lack of support in this forum, I dunno if vbulletin team is supposed to answer queries here or if this is just user-based support and vbulletin support only answers support tickets, that's not clear to me.

[sailvayu]

Thanks for your help it looks like there are a couple of those i have not seen. I thought I had found everything but I guess I had not. But then again VB should make this info all in one place. You are right it should not be up to the users to try to work this out for ourselves. And I do appreciate your help and all the help i get here even that of the VB team lol. I just hope they read this and understand what the users are going through I sort of get the feeling they do not care, This of course will one day lead to another company kicking there ass. Customer service should be primary with any company. I am seriously disappointed in what I am seeing here with VB, it takes me 2 days to get a simple question answered through a ticket and most of those questions could have been answered with a decent manual. Guess they prefer to pay tech support over and over rather than a decent tech writer to do a manual once. Thanks again for your assistance, time to go read more lol

[Fishman620]

I am surprised that a VB has not responded here. I have been using VB for a while now and I will tell you in the earlier years the support was a bit better, but I also think it's because so many people have started using the software. Like I have said before, I love the stuff, the support just has to get a bit better and we will all be set and a lot happier.