asmith@questor.wimsey.bc.ca (Adam Smith) (01/02/91)
I am gearing up to take a strip off of Xerox for the innumerable problems
that I have had with Ventura for Windows. Many of my calls to technical
"support" have been stymied by their insistence that "noone else seems to be
having much trouble with it".
When I posted my initial reactions to VP3 for WIN3 I received a number of
replies and mail to the effect that many others where having similar
problems. So I'd like to ask VP users to do me a favour...
Mail me a list of problems/bugs/annoyances that you have found with VP3. You
needn't go into heavy detail, just a point form list of problems. I want to
compare notes so that I can have a little more ammunition to throw at their
way.
If you want to include more information, it would be greatfully accepted,
but I'm more interested in hearing from as many people as possible. If there
is sufficient interest, I'd be happy to post my findings.
mail to:
asmith@questor.wimsey.bc.ca
cheers
adam
========================================================================
Adam Smith Genius - Graphic Artist - Bad Mood Guy
The Chameleon Papers Vancouver, BC CANADA
"I'd give my eyeteeth to have a Macintosh--unfortunately, due to
Apple's pricing policies, that's not enough"
========================================================================clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kathy Strong) (01/03/91)
In article <8D45u2w163w@questor.wimsey.bc.ca> asmith@questor.wimsey.bc.ca (Adam Smith) writes: >I am gearing up to take a strip off of Xerox for the innumerable problems >that I have had with Ventura for Windows. Many of my calls to technical >"support" have been stymied by their insistence that "noone else seems to be >having much trouble with it". >When I posted my initial reactions to VP3 for WIN3 I received a number of >replies and mail to the effect that many others where having similar >problems. So I'd like to ask VP users to do me a favour... I know this is a PC product, but nevertheless I'd like to make an additional suggestion. Borrow or buy a copy of _The Macintosh Way_ by Guy Kawasaki, read the chapter on Customer Support, and send copies of the relevant pages to Xerox--preferably to the big guns, not just tech support. Tech support is one of the most difficult jobs in any company, and telephone troubleshooting is legendary for being able to burn out the most dedicated person in short time, BUT... "Nobody else seems to be having that problem" is not an answer. Especially when, to just from what I've been reading and hearing, LOTS of people have been having problems with VP for Windows. Kawasaki's book gives a list of various flavors of bad support which is both hilarious and infuriating, because I've dealt so often with all of them. He also talks about what is necessary to make a great tech support department, and gives some examples of companies that do it right. Should be required reading, in my opinion, for any software company. Good luck (both sincere and ironic) in getting Xerox to listen... . -- ........................................................................... : Kathy Strong : "Try our Hubble-Rita: just one shot, : : (Clouds moving slowly) : and everything's blurry" : : clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu : --El Arroyo : :..........................................................................:
rickka@xmarketing.WV.TEK.COM (01/06/91)
I have recently spent hours, if not days trying to convert from Version 2.0 with Professional Extension to the new Version 3.0 for Windows. I have had absolutely no longer with their technical support. My system is as follows: Compaq 386S with 5 meg of memory Windows 3.0 Ventura 3.0 with a patch that was posted on Compuserve HP Laserjet III printer (HPPCL5 driver for Windows) Pacific Page 25-1 cartridge Adobe Type Manager (ATM) for Windows I first tried to print out a one page document. It printed a 1/2 inch stripe down the left margin of the paper on every document. This seems to be fixed with the patch I got from Compuserve. (If you need the patch, you can get it from the Ventura support group (GO VENTURA) libraries. If you aren't a member of Ventura, let me know and I'll mail you a copy. So finally, I have gotten a one page document printed correctly. I takes over 3 minutes for VP to start up on my system, because it remakes the environ.wid file everytime VP starts up. The manual says to rename this file and use the renamed file in your style sheets to speed up loading. I can't get this to work at all (at least with the patched version...I never checked to see if the original version had this problem.) I posted this problem to the Compuserve bulletin board...I see what response I get. I purchased ATM and the HP Laserjet III because I did not want to have megabytes of different point sizes of fonts on my disk. I had about 8 meg of fonts for the HP and now it is done to less than 2 megabytes. I have hundreds of documents written with the 2.0 version of Ventura and found very few problems. When I started to convert over to the new version, I have had to edit almost every document. I like to highlight part of sentances or lines by using the graphics feature of 'box text' and then shading it. This worked correctly in 2.0, but the shaded box always wipes out the text in Version 3.0. Yes, I have tried selecting the 'place behind' feature in the graphics menu, but it doesn't seem to work. Text placement varies often with the new version. It is usually solved by turning hyphenation off. (They have used a new hyphenation algorithm in Version 3.0). They document how to use the old method, but I have not tried that yet. In several cases, I have had problems with style sheets, such as font size getting screwed up. I have not been able to replicate this problem. There is absolutely no documentation in the manual on the binary format of a style sheet. If it gets corrupted, like several of mine have, you'll have to use a backup. The most disturbing problem I have is that I cannot use multiple with tables within the same VP session. If I choose to use a different width table, other than environ.wid, I get a "Cannot use new width table" error and VP quits with a severe error. If you accidently save your document during this session with an incorrect width table, you may never be able to bring up that style sheet again. (VP stores the name of the width table in the style sheet file.) I had to use a backup copy of the style sheet to correct this problem. Since Ventura Software, Inc did not originally write this software, (they bought the company and support until the end of 1990), problems will probably not be fixed very quickly. Some people on Compuserve suggest you buy the GEM version since Ventura is having a special deal if you buy both versions...why would I want to buy this version when it doesn't have any new features over 2.0 that I would use? I am really a promoter of Windows 3.0 and windowing environments in general. I would hope that these program get cleared up quickly before Ventura's and Xerox's reputation get tarnished...but I'm not holding my breath! Rick Kamp Tektronix, Inc. Network Displays Division Wilsonville, OR (503)685-2728 rickka@orca.wv.tek.com