Share via


Embed Macros in Help?

Having to meticulously follow detailed instructions is just an accident waiting to happen. Instead of application Help giving such instructions, I wish the Help would just expose Macros to do it for me.

I was just using the Help on Application X.  I wanted to create a Widget. I searched through the menus and couldn't see the "Create Widget" command, and so I did a search in help. Help fortunately found it, but told me I had to install a "Widget Pack" and dutifully gave me the 10 steps to follow to do that (go to Menu 1, Click button 2, on new dialog click "Install Stuff", select "Widget", Select "Yes", etc...)

This is bad.

With all the application automation, it would be great if this could be encapsulated in a macro that I can activate with a single button.   If the macro can't do the whole task, at least do part of it, such as opening the last dialog.  (Actually, I think some of the in-game tutorials for various Super Nintendo RPG games did a pretty good job of this, and that was ~10 years ago! )

Along the same lines, I'd love it if more error dialogs included similar context-sensitive links that would fix the problem if possible. The "repair" option in WinXp's Wireless support is a good example of this.