POP3 and IMAP for RMA windows

[steveh]

Any plans for adding these in the near future?

[KS-Soft]

Yes, we want to implement all test methods for RMA

Regards
Alex

[steveh]

Any ideas on when these will be added?

Thanks,

Steve

[KS-Soft]

I think April-May

Regards
Alex

[meppyman]

Did they ever get added? Doesn't work for me so wondering if there is something wrong with my setup? I get dialog saying they are not supported by Active RMA.

I tried looking through the manual for a list of what tests work and don't work with RMA, but couldn't find it (I never find what I am looking for in the manual).

Looking at the RMA Manager it looks like these test still have not been added. I have IMAP servers I would love to be able to test at customer sites that are not reachable from external connections (so have to use RMA to test them).

[KS-Soft]

Sorry, RMA does not support these test methods.
Manual shows correct information.

Regards
Alex

[meppyman]

OK I guess I figured that out. 5 years on are there any plans for them to be added?

As to your blunt comment that "Manual shows correct information"

Maybe the information is in there somewhere, and believe me I tried searching and jumping to pages from the table of contents but I still missed it. It seems that when anyone tries to point out that the manual or help pages could be improved you are not interested.

You would probably spend a lot less time supporting us if that content was easier to access. Technical people are not usually the best at doing help pages and documentation.

My vote still goes up for context sensitive help. Would save you and your customers a lot of additional support effort I think and so would be a worthwhile investment.

[KS-Soft]

[meppyman]

Sorry if my reply seemed harsh, I absolutely love your software and you provide amazing support and help.

I understand what you are saying about Internet protocols, I have used the URL test for now which is working ok.

Is the list in the manual though? IT would be a handy table in the RMA section. I have not "read" the whole manual but I do refer to it and look there first before I post, but I always have limited time so if I cannot find things I will ask.

I apologise for the attack about taking advice on board, I know you listen to your users and when you think it makes sense you take action which is fair. I just think the manual could be structured and referenced a little better (I used to write technical documentation but I still know that there were specialist technical writers who would do much better work than me)

You are correct, there is context sensitive help, but the help file itself is indexed for searching which I think would help and is what I meant, sorry. Also instead of being discrete pages it is like one big page, making it hard to reference and move through. Just some feedback, not meaning to be too critical as the product really is outstanding and is my secret weapon that helps me manage more customers than I could without it.

[KS-Soft]

In order to provide some indexed search option, I think we should change format of the manual/help. CHM file is basically compiled HTML files.
So you would prefer HLP files instead of CHM and PDF files instead of DOC?

Regarding big pages.. yes, HTML pages (help) are pretty big. E.g. single page contains information about all test methods. However HostMonitor opens page on correct place. E.g. when you click Help button while editing URL test, HostMonitor opens page on place where URL test method is described.
Sure, we can divide big page on small portions (separate page for each test method) but I think single page provide advantage when you need to find some information and you are not sure where it is located. Just click Ctrl+F and type phrase that you want to find, Windows will search thru all text on the page. It will search thru all test methods, test related macros, templates and common test properties in this case. If we divide it using small pages for each test method then search will be useless. Then we will need to change file format.

Regards
Alex

[meppyman]

You are asking if I would prefer one format over another, to me that is not important and I guess comes down to what functionality the format provides so is more of a backend decision, for me it's the front end that interests me, the content and how I can interact with it.

The way Help works seems to change with every version of Windows and Office which can be frustrating but basically the ability to search the entire help file or parts of it for keywords or phrases is pretty essential. You mention searching through the single page help file for the keyword but that can be very confusing and time consuming. Instead getting a list of relevant subjects or phrases that match your search that you can then click on the most likely ones and jump straight to the content always seems like the quickest and easiest way to find information in a large file.

A good contents and manual or automatic index is also useful. For example in this case I was trying to find out what tests are allowed for the RMA, so I searched on RMA which took me to lots of places in the document, then I tried tests (whew)... etc. It was time consuming and I still never found the detail I was after. If I could just do a search for the keywords rma and tests and have a list of the content that closest matched that then I would be spending less time searching and more time learning and using the product.

Maybe I am alone in this, and I do know that it can be a big job, not to mention structuring it and getting the content and detail right. For example you don't want to click on help next to a field and just get told "enter the field data here" which is obvious... you want to have definitions and explanations and examples and be able to link to further detail so that you can fully understand what you are doing in that field and why and what it does and how, etc.