You could buy a book, but sometimes books on niche products turn out more like dry manuals. You could likely spend days reading the manual and still come away with the "what now?" feeling. OmniFocus isn't a simple list maker it is a powerful database which can help you sort through mountains of tasks to allow you to focus on what exactly needs to be done next. In my case, for task management I use OmniFocus (after trying every other "to do" application under the sun). This is where additional help may be required. You may not understand how to tap into these features if you're just reading "This does that" in the documentation. While applications like Things are simple enough, there's often a lot of functionality hidden in the manual.
This time I read the manual, in no small part because almost every question I looked up on the IGG Software Knowledgebase had an answer in the manual.Īnother example: Productivity software.
I eventually gave up on the program - only to return over a year later, armed with more clues. Over time it became apparent that I had barely scratched the surface of iBank's functionality. "This seems simple enough," I said as I started entering transactions. When I started using iBank, shortly after its debut, I was lured in by its accessible design. Granted, most software manuals are written in plodding, feature by feature style and not as entertaining "here's how you solve this problem" books, but even that dry documentation can be vital to your efficacy when using the software. There's an entire industry built around learning software tools, like the Take Control series, which I find immensely helpful. While it might seem like cheap advice to "read the manual," I find very few people actually do. iPad apps may use the increased screen real estate to add more (and more obscure) options, and Mac or web applications can be far more complex than anything available on mobile platforms. While your average iOS app may seem simple enough, quite often there are bells and whistles you might not know about. Modern applications, whether on the desktop or on mobile, have a lot more room to maneuver, and consequently may arrive with a much steeper learning curve There were also hardware constraints - not much CPU power or memory, minimal storage, low-resolution displays - that forced applications to be simple by design. When graphical user interfaces were introduced, a lot of focus was on making software intuitive and easy to use. There was a time when Mac owners scoffed at their PC-loving counterparts, who had to pore over paper manuals to grok the essentials of a software program before they tried to use it.
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