The state of app documentation

[normwerner]

I thought that I'd start this thread to discuss the current state of the documentation for applications that one might download to their Droid. I have found the documentation to be severely lacking. Much of it was created for earlier versions of the Android OS and not specifically for the Droid. That may be OK and it may not be. I've also hit cases where the published documentation turned out to be wrong, or at least didn't make the app work as advertised, when I installed the app.

The main issues that I have had seem to revolve around how apps behave when you are running as a member of a WIFI network, verses how they work if you going OTA. The apps that I've had specific set-up problems with are the eStrang File Manager and the Xtralogic Remote Desktop Client.

Let me first and quickly say that both apps are great, they work as advertised, and I'm a happy user of both. The eStrang File Manager is particularly great for tying together my phone with my home systems for file exchanges and it's nothing short of magic that the Xtralogic Remote Desktop Client let's me sign on to and completely control my home system, as if I were sitting in front of it. I love both apps.

BUT, both have Help documentation for their set-up that can lead to hours of frustration (days in my case), because the app behaves differently when attached to a WIFI network than it does OTA. The documentation appears to be all about setting them up for OTA use and I tried to set both up while sitting at home, attached to my WIFI network. I've sent suggestions for improvements to both developers.

SO, for those non-techies out there (like me) who get one of these wonderful phones and then get frustrated when you can't get an app to work as advertised; here's some advice. Come to this forum before you give up and uninstall it. Ask what others have done to overcome the issues that you are hitting, maybe even send a message to developer. It's normally not the app that doesn't work. It may well be that the documentation is wrong or just not well written and that yo can get the app to work just fine by getting a little advice from someone who has gone through the frustrations already.

Norm