User Guide

I agree that the videos from Jennifer are wonderful, but I am one who learns equally, if not more so, from the printed (or digital) word. Having a COMPLETE user Manual will always be a blessing. Jennifer is always there if someone gets stuck and asks for a specific thing, but many of us do much better being able to look at a more complete User Guide than an assortment of videos covering specific things. A guide also helps when you need to refresh your memory by going off on a tangent that directly relates to making sense out of the current question you are asking. 

When I set out to put such a guide out in the beginning, I really did bite off more than I could chew. My brain simply is not wired to write user manuals. (Thus I really feel for Joshua and all involved with Photopia's working to produce a manual. As well as with any author that has written a manual for using ANY program. THANK YOU!) Especially for a program that I am still not very comfortable with. And with my retired time I have many other things higher up on my "to do" list. I have a new Computer and am once again working with Photopia. In 5 or 6 years I might be able to help someone else figure out how to do something with it, but until then, it's Jennifer and her videos until Photopia is able to finish a guide. 

P.S. I do NOT for a moment hold negative feelings towards the folks at Photopia for not having a guide ready to go. I am thankful they are making something available for those of us who really did enjoy Proshow. 

P.P.S. If there are any authors out there who also know how to use Photopia. You can get my money by publishing a guide. 🙂 

@dar4char Jennifer is the best!  I'd be surprised if anyone here wasn't aware of her.  She's also responsible for the official training Photopia provides.

Glad you're enjoying both her work and the Creator/Director software. 

@lahazard 

Hi Louis, and other Photopia users.  We all agree that Jennifer has done yeoman's work in creating tutorials for Photopia.  She is a treasure.  But topical videos are not a replacement for a Comprehensive User Reference Guide.

Finally, Photopia has published a User Guide and incorporated it into the help portion of the program.  I have begun reading thru the new Users Guide, which is published in conjunction with Photopia 2.0.  I am very pleased to report that the User Guide is excellent and complements Jennifer's video tutorials.

Surprisingly, Photopia did not announce the User Guide in the "News" section of the software, nor in this community forum.  Nor did I see it in the Photopia Blog.  I only discovered the User Guide when I went to the "help" tab in the program.

The User Guide is comprehensive, with lots of screen shots and links.  I recommend it highly.  Thanks to Photopia for this User Guide.  

Stu Mathison

Hi Stu.  I agree with all your comments about the guide and about Jennifer.  I am surprised however that you didn't spot the announcement in the News section of the software, which is where I learned about it in my Creator v.1 installation. There is a blog post dated August 23 announcing version 2, which also appeared in News that day if I recall correctly and can still be viewed through the "Hide Archived News" button in the software News feature, if you scroll down that list.  If you click on the Read More link in the August 23 blog announcement or on the News version, you'll see they gave the new user guide top billing on that page.  See also the Help Centre that pops up in Photopia when you click the Help button to the right of Manage Effects on the home screen (at least that is where it is on a Mac, not sure about Windows), and at the bottom there is a What's New item which when you View it lists bug fixes and then immediately the same item about the User's Manual.

There are a couple of omissions from the manual, notably the Remix features, but they've very quickly responded to correct that oversight with the September 6 Training Tuesday which does an excellent job explaining remixing with the Wizard.

Photopia is at the top of any software support game going, in my opinion.  Well done, them!  And Jennifer too!

@stuart-mathison I'm not surprised the User Guide was not posted here, if you check you will find it's be 2 years since there was a post in the News area.

But they did have it in the Archived News section of the program, (in Creator at least) but not under it's own heading. It is the first thing noted when you read about Photopia 2.0 upgrade.

It's a very good start and will get a lot of use. Thank you Photopia....