In this first in a series of “New in Pointwise V18.1” posts you’ll learn about the software’s web-based user documentation and online help.

In the beginning, documentation was PDF and online help was something totally separate. With Pointwise Version 18.1 that has all changed. The Pointwise User Manual has been re-implemented in HTML (formerly written in FrameMaker and converted to PDF) and hosted on our website: www.pointwise.com/doc/user-manual/.

The new web-based Pointwise User Manual for Version 18.1 at http://www.pointwise.com/doc/user-manual.

In addition to the change in format from PDF to HTML, the user manual is now used for the software’s online help (what you get when you press F1) so now a single document provides consistent explanations of each command.

The benefits of Pointwise’s web-based documentation relative to PDF include:

• What does everyone do first to get a question answered? They Google.
• Information is much more discoverable with the built-in search feature.
• The user manual and online help are now one in the same so the information is consistent.
• This web-based format is easier to make “media rich.” As you can see in the image below, many of the pages include video demonstrations.
• Because it is much easier for us to maintain and update HTML versus our previous publishing system, you will receive more updates sooner.

An example of  video integration into the new web-based Pointwise user manual.

For those of you working in environments that don’t provide internet access, don’t worry. There’s an option during installation by which you can install a local copy of the user manual and direct the software to use it.

You may also infer that our other documents such as the Tutorial Workbook will also be available on the web in future releases.