The RoboColum(n)

The new Adobe Support Forums have been up and running for a couple of months now so I thought I’d provide my top three positives and negatives.

The Positives

1. The ability to add images to posts even if the two methods of doing so confuse some. “A picture paints a thousand words” and in forums being able to physically see the problem from the user’s perspective helps us all get to the nub of the problem. It is just a shame that there is some confusion about the bes method of providing an image. See the RoboWizard’s slant on this here.
2. The “More like this” list attached to each discussion. This enables users who may not have found an answer inside a discussion to move directly to a discussion on a similar topic.
3. The breadcrumbs to be found along the top of each forum discussion allowing you to quickly and easily navigate around the discussions.

 The Negatives

1. Performance. The old RoboHelp forums were a breeze compared to the mind numbingly sluggish speed at which pages load.
2. The inability to have a signature stored that can be used on the end of posts. Whilst this may be a feature not used by many, those of us with accolades, blogs or websites should be able to publicise them.
3. Searching. In particular the fact that the new search tool searches by default searches across all the Adobe product forums. Whilst this can be useful, especially if a problem is in an area that covers two products (e.g. integration of FrameMaker files into RoboHelp) it can lead users to the incorrect forum audience.
   
   Tip: Click the “More Options” link to select a specific forum before performing a search. Better still press Adobe to provide an option in your user profile to avoid you having to do this each time!