PV2Tool Nags/Disclaimers
IMHO, PV2Tool has waaaaay too many nags/disclaimers. I get the point - I could kill my camera. I do suffer from cronic CRS (Can't Remember S%&#), :? but even my memory isn't so bad I need to be reminded with every button press. Maybe the next release could just have one long disclaimer at startup? Just a thought. But it is a fantastic tool anyway.

The reason for the extra disclaimers/warnings is that some buttons are inherintly more dangerous than others. I agree they're a bit tiring to the user that knows what he's doing, but I want beginners to understand the possible consequences of what they're doing. That said, I'm always open to having my mind changed... anybody else feel that the warnings, etc., are overdone?

BillW – Welcome to the catch-22 world of user interface design; if you assume that the user is a novice, you insult the pros – if you assume he is a pro, he does something stupid and then blames you! How about this? When PVTool is looking for the PV2keys file, also have it look for the ‘PV2.ini’ file, a simple text file. In PV2.ini is the single line: “USER LEVEL = 0 This could be stored in a global variable and used to ‘filter’ the warnings, like this: 0 - all warnings displayed 1 - low level warnings disabled 2 - all warnings disabled (Default is of course, user level = 0) I’m not a C programmer, (amateur VB6) but if Forkboy’s original code was fairly modular this shouldn’t be too hard to add. Besides, an ‘INI’ file might come in handy later. Topaze

I concur - now that I have things down fairly well, the warnings are annoying. However, I wouldn't take them out entirely. Perhaps a checkbox "idiot mode off: <>"? -radarman

Yeah..I think I gotta go with Ezy on this one, Bill. Maybe on "first run" you could have a little popup that gives a warning and then be done with it. Besides, as time goes on, new discoveries with these cameras are mitigating or even eliminating many of the "dangers" that were suspected in the past. In fact, as long as you can offload a good flash image from the gitgo, there really aren't any dangers after all, just little PITA mistakes which become part of the learning curve.

My main concern with repeated warnings (other than the PITA factor) is that I start ignoring all of them. As a newbie to all this, the warnings themselves are then contributing to my odds of making a serious mistake, because I don't pay attention to the ones that I should. Something to consider is the feature you see on lots of programs now. That is, with the warning dialog you get a little checkbox asking if you want to display the warning again in the future. It usually defaults to "Yes". Now (if reasonably possible), I would even go one step further. I would suggest the options of no more nags this session (or maybe day) or no more nags ever. Then I would certainly put in a button that lets the user turn all the nags back on. Another feature could be to randomize some of the important warnings (and features as well). Even if the user has turned off warnings, some of the important ones still pop up from time to time. I'm a Business Analyst. I'm not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination, but I have made quite a few intranet and macro tools using VBA and ASP. I've also written the spec's for some major customizations and bolt-ons to ERP systems. The tools I've had to support the LEAST were the ones where I incorporated random warning and feature dialogs. I don't know where I got the idea (we can pretty much assume it wasn't my idea), but it has served me very well. And in the intranet and macro tools, I also incorporate some humorous dialogs ("I'm tryin' to think, but nuttin' happens" or "He who laughs last, thinks slowest.") Most of my users are in a rush and will click by a dialog without really reading it, but if they are thinking it might be something fun then they are more likely to tarry. Anyway, this has just been my experience. Please do not take it as any criticism of a fantastic tool. I've been a member of quite a few web communities. Most of them leave a lot to be desired. The only one I ever thought really incredible in the way people took a lot of personal time to help one another is the Outfront Forums (http://www.frontpagewebmaster.com/), but I have to say this one is a rival. You have all been terrific in helping out this newbie. Thank you. =========================== Yikes! Sorry for the long post. I get (even more) wordy when I'm tired. Going to bed now. Later...