Not user friendly in every way shape and form

[Mr Angry]

I'm trying catalogue in the view of using it for our site to try and speed up the process of adding and amending new products, customising postage and taxt rates, yet still making the site look "homely" and not the usual 'in your face buy buy buy buy' commercial site.


What can I say, this software is so difficult to get started I'm 99.99999999% recurring in favour of giving up.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a complete novice, my current site is a Frankenstein of butchered code, I'm a certificated user for SAS, Business Objects, AS400 etc yet this software has me beat.

The help file is a lie, period. I've searched what I need to know and it gives the most useless results. Here's one. How do I put a custom background on..... the help screen assumes I've already set the custom background. Drill down.....ok, ask again, how do get the file in for the custom background in the first place...see answer 1 which wasn't any help.

I make a change, hit preview to see what it does, that change might as well be set in stone and if it's wrong I can't go back. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the software so many times to start from scratch that seriously, the next time it gets uninsalled it's not going back on.


As a small online business £399 + VAT is an investment. To be scared of the software isn;t a good start. If anything goes wrong that's it, I'm not just £399 + VAT in the crapper, I'm offline with a crippled business and done for, I might as well bend over and just list on eBay.


The most obvious, simple, basic functions I would expect to jump out and bite me on the bum are missions in impossibility shrouded in mystery and useless help topics that don't tell me anything. I ask a question, the help files assume I've already solved what I've just asked and give me more useless info. Detail in help? WTF is that? How's about "press this, press that, resolved" heavens no, that'd be too obvious for this software.


Sales recommended speaking to technical support. Are they on the phone now? Didn't think so. I have a vision......I might as well phone tech suppoort and never hang up, just shout when I need help on the next issue.....the next issue is the next time I open a menu or hit a key to do ANYTHING.


Can someone, anyone, actually give me any reason to use this cart? I'm trying to swap to something that will save me time compared to my current "knife and fork easy drag and drop" software because although it's soooo easy to use, my product levels have outgrown it and amending the site takes forever. In hindsight it would have been quicker to bite the bullet and spend a day per page making changes than the 2 weeks I've tried on Catalogue to even get started.


To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. Reading the sales bumf on the website "easy to use, friendly interface, fully customisable.." to be honest, at the moment I think the only lie bigger than the sales write up is "Elvis coded it..."


Any recommednations *wink* for where to go next *wink wink*?

[Duncan Rounding]

Did you actually speak to tech support?
Have you arranged to go on a training course?

If you're not confident to modify the software then I recommend you stick to one of the given themes until you are.

I haven't seen you ask any questions on the forums as yet - there's some very knowledgeable people here that could help you with specific issues if you ask.

Ask away....

[guccij]

I started just as you did, not as a complete beginner, but someone who needed to move up to Actinic to improve everything about our already successful online business.

After a month of messing about, making mistakes, learning that snapshots are vital, we went live with the new look. The key for us, was spending time on here, where the expertise is second to none.

Two years later, we have trebled our turnover. We no longer do the design stuff ourselves, we can afford to pay someone else to do it for us.

[Mark Evenden]

If your livelihood depends on your website, then why not get one of the Actinic partners to design a theme for you? or buy a ready made template? (£100 or so?)

I find the "help" facility in the software and the "search" on here awkward too, but what I do is type my words into Google and it usually returns results to threads on here that "search" misses.

I have had numerous things that I cant make work or that I don't understand because I don't understand the terminology, but there is always an answer and a solution.

"Snapshot" has saved me oh so many times

[Darren B]

FM i thought i could be critical

Seriously i dont doubt you have skills, but if your AS400 certified (yes i know what AS400 is and have worked on them) then this is a bespoke ibm system and nothing is like it and each one is unique, i also presume you are probably from a unix type background? however Actinic is not like other systems that have true multiuser capabilities with some serious backend DB driven by either a webbrowser or emmulator. It has to be taken for what it is a simple to use program.

IMHO i think the problem here is your looking to deep into it, my advice is step back and understand how the content tree works, DO NOT hack the layouts until you know how to use the program

Just because you can drive a car does not mean you pilot a boat

[bentleybloke]

When I started with actinic v6, it was far more complicated with external template files. Now all you have to do is click on something in the design preview and switch to look at the code. You can undo changes after preview so long as you don't move from the template you changed last. v10 is great.

My advice:

The first thing I did was to delete everything in the default store and recreate it from scratch using the User Guide. I then read the Advanced User Guide, played with and added things which I found interesting. Only by doing this will you get a knowledge of how the templates/blocks/blockifs work.

Components/Choices/Permutations still confuse me a little because I don't use them often. So I go back to the User Guide and recreate the examples which usually points me in the right direction. It is only be reading the examples and following the instructions on how to do things that you will be able to create your own store.

Print a copy of the guides for loo time reading and relaxation and then if you do decide to use something other than actinic you have some backup bog roll. Win Win.

[Darren B]

When I started with actinic v6, it was far more complicated with external template files.

I have almost forgotten those days

[Jan]

Off topic rather but

Snorestore®
for a quieter life

... that is quite brilliant

take a look at original message and see if you, like me are drawn to clicking on the link. This is a great example of how you can utilise a forum signature for marketing purposes, in an unobtrusive and clever way ... for me it was the fact that I know that snorestore are a fine, reliable business and that little @ .. why was it there, I just couldn't help but click.

Well done J.

[Darren B]

I know that snorestore are a fine, reliable business and that little @ .. why was it there, I just couldn't help but click.

Well done J.

LOL jan thats an ® not an @

[guccij]

Well thank you Jan - even if you did misread it!

[Jan]

I didn't misread it actually, I just was lazy in my typing.

:-)

[Darren B]

I didn't misread it actually, I just was lazy in my typing.

:-)

Hehe i bet you thought no one would notice, actually what do people use when they need to use an ascii symbol, i tend to look them up on google do others have a file / list held locally

[Jan]

I usually use cut and paste for symbols, same as you.

[guccij]

Cut and paste for me

[fergusw]

what do people use when they need to use an ascii symbol

Memorise the ALT+[XXX] key combo for the common ones and keep a handy bookmark for the rest.
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