Frustrating isn't it?  You buy a product and there's either no instructions on how to use it or they are impossibly difficult, even wrong in some cases.

Think of flat packed furniture or children's toys, we've probably all had trouble somewhere along the line.

We also live in a fast paced society and don't always want to wait to build things.  We want everything yesterday. 

 Maybe we think we can do without instructions.

The problem is worse when you buy goods that are come under the heading digital delivery.  We can have them straight away which satisfies our impatience, but you can't ask questions quickly of anyone any more.

Instead you quite often have to raise a ticket and just wait for someone to get back to you.

In reality when you make, design or produce something, it shouldn't be an arduous task to provide a 'how to' guide.

Especially when good documentation can prevent support issues before they happen.

As the developers of  SmartDD, we (Frank Haywood and Paul Freedman) have done just that.  Getting the automated digital delivery of your goods right is important to us and that's why you will find a comprehensive set of instructions to guide and support you through installing and using the software.

We've tried to think of everything and in addition we normally answer our emails within 2 - 3 hours of receiving them - quite often sooner.  And we always listen to our customers - if you think something needs more explanation we'll look at it for you.

And you might be thinking "what's the point of this post?"

Well, it's the fact that it's something we knew, we'd forgotten, and have re-learned again.  And it's that good and comprehensive documentation is a must.

In our initial eagerness to get the first version of SmartDD out, we cut some corners on the documentation front.  Our intention was to go back and fix it soon after release.  However, things don't always work out the way you plan!

The result?  A slew of minor support issues which of course took a lot of time to answer.  All of this could have been avoided if our documentation was better at first release.

We're now really happy to say that with the documentation we're supplying here and in the download area in the form of pdfs and videos, virtually all of the minor support questions from new customers have disappeared.