Manuals are unreadable

Hello folks.

Reference manual: 3000 pages,
Advanced editing manual: 380 pages,
Fusion manual: 340 pages...

Is it "the more page you have, the more clever you are"?

Is it just me or I CAN'T READ these manuals?
When I search for a precise question, i can't find it.
Search for "Tracker", I step upon dozens of word "Tracker" but not one explain to me how to place the Tracker node in the composition. No example of nodes linked in a way that produce the attended result.

Some would say: look the internet. Yes great, 3000 or 300 pages for nothing, my work computer is not connected so I have to switch to the other one. ANd when I search, i don't find clear explanation of the mechanics of the nodes. Maybe on video, but if I work on a video, maybe I don't want to lose 10 minutes on another video while I can just watch 1 picture showing me the node setup and find out myself how it works.

I do wish that they’d break up the PDF into smaller logical sections so that it would be more easily searchable. MacOS preview chokes when you search for anything more complicated than a single word.

But you also can’t expect it to have every answer to every question you have about Resolve. That’s why this community’s here; to fill in the gaps.

So, I agree that the community at large would benefit from a more easily searchable manual, but I also think that the manual is very well written, and full of useful information. If it weren’t for the fact that I know it’d quickly become outdated, I’d actually love to have a paper version.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

One tip I find useful is that in a PDF you can go to the appropriate chapter and Search will begin from there. So you could start the Search in the Fusion section.

Might eliminate some irrelevancies.

I think this is a mindset making these manuals.
I'm not sure they think about users, meaning thinking LIKE users. Not like a pile of informations stacked together.
Analogy with an hammer:
Seems to me that instead of showing how to have the hammer in hand and the gesture to make, they analyse the molecular structure of the wood and iron...

Hello folks.

Reference manual: 3000 pages,
Advanced editing manual: 380 pages,
Fusion manual: 340 pages...

Is it "the more page you have, the more clever you are"?

The manuals are supposed to give you as much information as possible. And that's a good thing. They are extremely well written.
They are not short "How to get started quickly" guides. And they are not meant to be. They are meant to be in-depth references for Resolve.
On the other hand, have a look at Adobe's manuals...they suck.
Resolve's manuals are not "unreadable". On the contrary, they are very pleasant to read, but I agree that it can be heard to search in them because of their size. So additional chapter-based PDFs would be handy.

Is it just me or I CAN'T READ these manuals?

I started reading big chunks of the Resolve manual last year and found it to be a very entertaining and interesting read with just the right pacing and amount of information. I loved it, so maybe it is just you.
I also started reading the Fusion manual years ago and I enjoyed the amount of information a lot. I learned a lot of things from it.

When I search for a precise question, i can't find it.

This is not meant in an offensive way: Improve your searching skills.
There's an advanced search in Acrobat Reader. Select "Include Bookmarks".
This way, all bookmarks from the table of contents to sub-chapters will be searched first.

Search for "Tracker", I step upon dozens of word "Tracker" but not one explain to me how to place the Tracker node in the composition. No example of nodes linked in a way that produce the attended result.

When I search for "Tracker" (including bookmarks), starting at the top of the document, the first result I get is "Using The Tracker Node", which is a 20 page chapter for just using that node including node graphs. That should be, what you were hoping for?

In Standalone Fusion, you could just hover your mouse over the inspector and press F1 and you'd get the help for the selected node. I think that didn't work in previous Resolve versions. You might want to try that in the current version.

I think this is a mindset making these manuals.
I'm not sure they think about users, meaning thinking LIKE users.

If you want to understand the mindset of the manuals, all you need to do is watch a bunch of training videos from Alexis Van Hurkman. He literally wrote most of the manual, his tutorials are excellent, and many of them are on YouTube. If his voice isn’t the one you hear inside your head when you read it, you’re doing it wrong ;-}

As far as BMD ‘not thinking like users’ goes, I understand your frustration. But I think that the problem isn’t that they aren’t thinking about users; I t’s that they’re bending over backwards to use an approachable, traditional, print-media format, and it’s backfiring from a usability standpoint.

Resolve is a VERY complex piece of software. In fact, there is no other software like it. No company has ever been as successful at integrating a “studio suite” into a single package; Apple abandoned the idea when they replaced Final Cut Pro Studio with FCPX. Adobe’s always kept their apps distinct.

So cramming all of the info necessary to operate a NLE/DAW/VFX/Color suite into a single, serial string of characters is an unusual choice because it’s overly reductive. Three thousand pages is concise from a pure word count perspective.

For comparison, the size of Resolve’s PDF is a bout a third of Cinema 4D’s HTML manual. Yet the C4D one is much easier to navigate and feels shorter, even though it’s not.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Resolve is a VERY complex piece of software. In fact, there is no other software like it.

In video editing space maybe. From creative apps, Houdini and Unreal Engine run circles around Resolve complexity wise, as do Maya and others. Not relevant to original topic though... but I see this idea that Resolve is the most complex ever float around quite frequently.

Is it just me or I CAN'T READ these manuals?
When I search for a precise question, i can't find it.

Resolve is a large, complex piece of software with an awful lot of capability. If you first come to it with the attitude "I'll look things up as I need them" then you're maximizing your level of frustration. The better approach is to set aside an hour or two every day to go through all the training material first. That'll answer the basic questions and give you a far better feel for the landscape, which will make it a lot easier to use the manuals when you need to do more advanced work.

I'm new to Resolve myself, and I learned this lesson when I first started to use Premiere Pro around a decade ago. Time invested in education at the front end pays handsome dividends for many years.

Resolve is a VERY complex piece of software. In fact, there is no other software like it.

In video editing space maybe. From creative apps, Houdini and Unreal Engine run circles around Resolve complexity wise, as do Maya and others. Not relevant to original topic though... but I see this idea that Resolve is the most complex ever float around quite frequently.

I know. I’m about a year into my first Houdini Indie subscription. I wasn’t trying to say Resolve is the most complex piece of software, just that it’s more than a simple NLE, and really like multiple complete apps in one package.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Reference manual: 3000 pages, Advanced editing manual: 380 pages, Fusion manual: 340 pages... Is it "the more page you have, the more clever you are"? Is it just me or I CAN'T READ these manuals? When I search for a precise question, i can't find it.

My current prediction is that the next full Resolve 17 manual will be 4000 pages, and we'll soon see if I win that bet.

One reason for the User Forums is to ask questions and get answers from the regulars here. I actually agree with you: I think the 4000-page single manual should be broken up as follows:

1) installation/config guide (including examples of specific usable computer hardware)
2) Resolve Color
3) Resolve Conform & Editing
4) Resolve Fusion VFX
5) Resolve Fairlight audio

I think five different manuals of 600-700 pages each would be better than a single 4000-page manual, plus it would simplify the index and hypertext to make jumping to a section less trouble.

I'd also like to see a Troubleshooting guide with a "Best Practices" guide for Workflow & Setup. The separate textbooks do at least provide some ideas and scenarios in which the tools can be put into use.

I have to say, the user interface for Resolve has come a long way in 10 years, and a lot of things make sense when you take a deep look as to how and why the tools work in context. It helps to go through the tutorials available from the authorized BMD training companies (FXPHD, Ripple, MixingLight) as well as Lowepost and a few others on the net.

1A36E297-8089-42CA-9336-31AAF242FD84.jpeg (129.84 KiB) Viewed 2383 times

Manuals always make me think of this one... (1995 circa)

1A36E297-8089-42CA-9336-31AAF242FD84.jpeg

Manuals always make me think of this one... (1995 circa)

LOL! I have those, -and- the big white/orange 'flowery thing' box for the XSI manuals.

All books peppered with post-it bookmarks to easily find stuff back when needed.

Kids these days..... (/old man mode off)

1A36E297-8089-42CA-9336-31AAF242FD84.jpeg

Manuals always make me think of this one... (1995 circa)

LOL! I have those, -and- the big white/orange 'flowery thing' box for the XSI manuals.

All books peppered with post-it bookmarks to easily find stuff back when needed.

Kids these days..... (/old man mode off)

Yep and being paper... there is no search button!

But seriously, I’m in favour to split the manual in blocks and a better search algorithm somehow...

I would like a manual or guide where it only referred to the new functions implemented per DVR version.

Ricardo Marty

I would like a manual or guide where it only referred to the new functions implemented per DVR version.

Ricardo Marty

Like this?

https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/ ... 4240010000

I would like a manual or guide where it only referred to the new functions implemented per DVR version.

Ricardo Marty

Like this?

https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/ ... 4240010000

Looks good, need to go over it but are they available for all the prior versions?

Ricardo Marty

I would like a manual or guide where it only referred to the new functions implemented per DVR version.

Ricardo Marty

Like this?

https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/ ... 4240010000

Looks good, need to go over it but are they available for all the prior versions?

Ricardo Marty

https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/ ... 4708600000

https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/ ... 4122211000

I would like a manual or guide where it only referred to the new functions implemented per DVR version.

Ricardo Marty

Like this?

https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/ ... 4240010000

Looks good, need to go over it but are they available for all the prior versions?

Ricardo Marty

Where are they i need from 12 on.

Thank you

Ricardo Marty

https://lmgtfy.app/?q=davinci+resolve+12+manual


HPz840 - 2x 14 Core 2.6GHz - 64GB RAM
Windows 10 Pro 20H2
2x RTX 2080Ti (SD 460.89)
Resolve Studio 16.2.7
Decklink 4K Extreme (11.6)
FSI CM250
Panasonic FZ1000
Mini Panel

https://lmgtfy.app/?q=davinci+resolve+12+manual

Lol.

But seriously, i was able to find the “what’s new” for 17/16/15, i dont remember seeing the 14/12.5/12

1A36E297-8089-42CA-9336-31AAF242FD84.jpeg

Manuals always make me think of this one... (1995 circa)

And it was kind of revolutionary when they put it on a CD-ROM while everybody else was still killing forests.
We needed to buy a CD drive only for the manuals, the software was still coming on tape cartridges.

But seriously, i was able to find the “what’s new” for 17/16/15, i dont remember seeing the 14/12.5/12

I think for 12/12.5/14, they just wrote new manuals from scratch and did not have a "What's New" section. I think enough people asked them to do that they agreed to do that for 17. Also, 17 is such a gigantic change from previous versions, they understood that they were going to need to "bridge the gap" from 16 to 17.

Note that the new manual for 17 nor the configuration guide are out yet. I hope they are soon, even if they're just in "preliminary" form.

1A36E297-8089-42CA-9336-31AAF242FD84.jpeg

Manuals always make me think of this one... (1995 circa)

And it was kind of revolutionary when they put it on a CD-ROM while everybody else was still killing forests.
We needed to buy a CD drive only for the manuals, the software was still coming on tape cartridges.

They did it because of costs both in production and shipping. The rest was just icing.

Ricardo Marty

Of course. I didn't think that Softimage was "green". But on a larger scale it has an impact. Software manuals are getting outdated faster than they can write them – as we see here

Where are they i need from 12 on.

Thank you

Ricardo Marty

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/suppor ... and-fusion

Scroll through "Latest Support Notes"

There’s already a discussion/debate on this topic here:

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=97693

Regardless of which software I'm using I tend to go straight to Google to look for answers as it's usually 100 times faster than manuals lol.

But that tip aside, I'm in the camp for breaking it into separate files for each module. As a few posters point out it makes for a speedier search function.

3720 pages isn't terrible if you consider there are actually several very complex programs under one interface here.

I think the manuals are very good. In fact the best I have seen in a software. However that is not to say that they cannot get better. I find they work well together with video tutorials so I jump a bit back and forward.

Best,
Andreas