pwalpwal

Morten Saether [Cakewalk]
The offline help has been deprecated.

can't think of any reason for this? properly maintained documentation can be output to multiple types - online, offline, pdf, whatever - from a single source

100+
I was even happy if there was only a pdf-version of the current contents available. I think a clean up can be done step by step to avoid too much effort at once.

mudgel
So why dump something that still covers most of CbB before a replacement is ready?

Thanks for the feedback. We will take it into consideration. To clarify, the online help has been the default help system for many years, and we will continue to maintain and evolve the online help in order to provide a good experience and timely updates.

Although the offline and online help were output from a single source, there was still a lot of extra overhead in maintaining and testing multiple help formats in multiple languages. Now that we are a smaller and more agile team, it was a good opportunity to streamline our processes and focus our efforts on solutions that benefit most users. The aging CHM format also has limitations that prevent us from implementing some of the new modern technologies we want to use.

In the future, perhaps a good solution is to let users download the online HTML help for offline use.

I prefer the web-based help although a downloadable html might be useful too. The only problem I have ATM is the inability to search. Right now I get SONAR search results and substitute Cakewalk in the url. Works most of the time. I expect this will be addressed when the help finds a home on the BandLab site.

Morten Saether [Cakewalk]
The offline help has been deprecated. We are investigating different solutions for the online help, so stay tuned.

That's sad...

Morten Saether [Cakewalk]
The offline help has been deprecated. We are investigating different solutions for the online help, so stay tuned.

I am another person that would hate to see all options for offline help permanently eliminated. I do understand the need to streamline, so I'm not asking for a completely separate system, but having the ability to download something would be a big help (pardon the pun) for those who keep their DAWs offline most of the time.

I feel there's a valid argument for offline help. Some of us spend a small fortune building custom computers for audio recording and editing. The last thing we need is some hacker/spoofer/whatever crashing our expensive beasts and potentially losing many hours of creative work. I prefer to work offline as much as possible and actually would disable my network adapter while I'm working just to ensure no internet connection and free up computer resources. If it wasn't for having to download software occasionally I don't think I'd even plug the ethernet cable in.

Something odd here. Virtually 100% of the Sonar offline help is still relevant and will be so for a long time yet. Is the real reason it's now unavailable something to do with download bulk? Surely it should still be included, even with a caveat like "Please be aware the current offline help files are not being kept up to date for now as we develop more up to date solutions for maintaining and delivering these." Full story please.

Skyline_UK
... Virtually 100% of the Sonar offline help is still relevant and will be so for a long time yet. ...

If I need to refer to the last Sonar offline help, I open up SONAR.CHM in Program Files\Cakewalk\SONAR Platinum. The pdf of the SONAR Reference Guide is there too.

Wibbles

Skyline_UK
... Virtually 100% of the Sonar offline help is still relevant and will be so for a long time yet. ...

If I need to refer to the last Sonar offline help, I open up SONAR.CHM in Program Files\Cakewalk\SONAR Platinum. The pdf of the SONAR Reference Guide is there too.

I do the same for Sonar and from what I understand 99% of the stuff is valid for CbB too so not an issue yet imo? 

Skyline_UK
Something odd here. Virtually 100% of the Sonar offline help is still relevant and will be so for a long time yet. Is the real reason it's now unavailable something to do with download bulk? Surely it should still be included, even with a caveat like "Please be aware the current offline help files are not being kept up to date for now as we develop more up to date solutions for maintaining and delivering these." Full story please.

agree... if the help is being kept up to date then why not publish it in multiple formats?