Suggestion to attract new users

[Beano]

TC is awesome and feature-packed.... and I have been using it for more than 10 years now

But when I try to "sell" non-users the idea of trying TC, people usually get scared away by the ugly default look, and never give the product the chance it deserves and "defaults" back to the lame Explorer in Windows.

Yes... a lot of things in TC can be tweaked and customized with colors, fonts, buttons, etc, but new users never get this far.

My suggestion for v7.0 : do a major UI overhaul with "fresh eyes"... get new buttons/icons, nicer toolbars, splash-screen, re-design dialogs and make them nicer to look at and have greater consitency... in short : make TC more "sexy" to look at from the start

This may not affect the use of the product but I'm sure that this will attract far more new users... which means more money to Christian

Keep up the good work... looking forward to the next version as allways

P.S : Have any v7.0 features been announced yet ?

[Lefteous]

2Beano
Hi,

overhaul is the keyword:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=71527#71527

Some features of 7.0:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=8765

[Beano]

Sounds great

Have Christian talked about a time-frame for the v7 release ?

[SanskritFritz]

Have Christian talked about a time-frame for the v7 release ?

AFAIK No

[Sam_Zen]

I agree about the difficulty to 'sell' TC to the average user. But I don't agree about the easy solution to make TC more 'sexy'. TC is not a replacement in some race with exploder, it is more. It's a desktop with all the tools, apps and files you need to work with. And I don't think there is anything 'ugly' about a list of files, in readable text, with their properties, in lines under each other.
For the promotion of TC there are already lots of very strong arguments available from the present state of the app.
Of course explorer is a lame product, but one better convince people with positive arguments about the many advantages of TC already there. A strong one is the increased efficiency, if working with TC. People will experience that in a short time.
The difficulty of selling TC too, is that newbies have to change some wrong habits, like the i.m.o. dreadful drag-n-drop action.

Meanwhile imho I would like to see a bit more restricted behaviour by the users mentioning version 7 all the time.
What's the hush here ? Version 6.54 is just a few days old. So far, everything works fine. Improvements will come anyway along the line.
I'm glad with the present version I use, so I'm not waiting for the next one. If Christian would stop right now with further developments, it would be ok by me, and I would be very grateful to him.
So I consider every new one as a pleasant surprise.

[Beano]

Sam, In short ... you a wrong

Basicly we (users in this forum) are all using TC and obviously find it exellent and to find the features to be more important than the look.

BUT you have to remember than many users judge TC on the first appearance and never give it the chance.
I have experienced this myself MANY times ... no matter how strong my arguments are over how mush better and powerfull TC is compared to Explorer - people (that's non-TC-users) find TC to be ugly and a "nerd-tool", and go back to Explorer.

Sadly but true... I know you apparently can't see this, but that's my personal experience, so there you go

Why the "What's the hush here ?" attitude ?
I'm simply interested in knowing when aprox. TC7 is coming... I'm not bitching or complaining... I'm simply intrested in the product and looking forward to it!
Is this so bad ?

[frenky]

Well, from my experience, you can "sell" this product only to someone who uses computer extensivly at work and when this work involves lot of files. And he has to be unhappy with Explorer.
To averige user TC is simply overkill. For a beginer, jet another obsticle...

But, IMHO if GUI redesign will attract more people to buy TC, it is a wise buisness call, and at the end of the day it's all about the money...

[JohnFredC]

In my observation, the main reason Explorer users resist TC is the lack of folder trees in the file panels. Not everyone keeps their fixed-disk organization in their heads and Mr. Gates has trained them to use a tree control instead.

Put dual trees in TC and many more Explorer users will "get" the dual pane approach immediately and adopt TC instead of Explorer.

On the other hand, the file manager software market is HUGE and perhaps Mr. Ghisler has all the new TC registrations he needs annually to maintain the lifestyle of his choice. I can certainly appreciate that, if true.

However, Windows Vista (specifically WinFS) will change the file manager landscape. All of the dual pane filers are going to have to adapt or probably, in the long term, die.

Soon, it will be 90% about the metadata and only 10% about the filing.

[Sir_SiLvA]

Soon, it will be 90% about the metadata and only 10% about the filing.

*rotfl* thats what MS and Adobe wanna make YOU belive *rotfl*

[Beano]

I agree... I can't see that Vista or WinFS will change anything

[D1P]

My modest reasonings in this case:
Many users look on TC and think: "Ooh, its looks terrible! "
Other users try to use TC and do not understand, that in it it is better.
And only the third users read a file of the help, ask questions in forums, and become true adherents of Total Commander.
And for this reason there are "packs" - self-made distributions of TC, with the improved options and better interface.

My offer: create official "improved" distribution of TC which will involve more users. No plugins additions - only standard adjustments changes to more convenient.
Certainly, the old distribution should be left. But my idea also has the right to a life, and it should involve many new users.

[Hacker]

standard adjustments changes

What are these?

TIA
Roman

[B@rndH]

What I find helpful when starting with a new program is a kind of "tip of the day" which helps to uncover many an interesting feature.

The other thing is (and that has been talked about before AFAIK) that an interested user can only see that official screenshot at http://www.ghisler.com/picture.htm which could even deter a major TC-fan. (Sorry, Mr. Ghisler, but that's what I think when I see that screenshot, no offence meant!) There (at the above url) is no link to the TC-wiki (compliment to all participants, marvellous work!) which could help to lessen that effect, especially http://www.ghisler.com/beginners.htm is a major piece of help for the interested user.

Unfortunately, these nuggets are so deeply hidden that only a very interested person will click himself through to the FAQ (if he is still interested then!?) and then further on to the wiki which in itself is a concept not known to many people out there on the internet.

I would like to suggest some more "help" there. For example I find animated gifs helpful which show what is supposed to happen at the various stages as they are used in the named tutorial. Such a help should be offered right at the first start of TC, short directions with an informative gif right beside that to read along. Such a beginning would sooth many a nerve of an unconfident though interested beginner I think.

[JohnFredC]

JohnFredC wrote:

Soon, it will be 90% about the metadata and only 10% about the filing.

*rotfl* thats what MS and Adobe wanna make YOU belive *rotfl*

2 Sir Silva:

1. What does *rotfl* mean?

2. Perhaps system administrators will always have the most interest in file locations, resource allocations, etc. That's certainly understandable.

But many of the rest of us use computers for stuff not related to computers per se... and, except for backups, the file metadata is more important than file location.

The challenge for filer developers is to understand how people use metadata and creatively integrate that metadata into existing file tools such as TC. After all, that's what TC's "content" plugin interface is all about: user metadata.

Just because it's promoted by MS doesn't automatically mean it's useless/worthless/whatever, heretical as that may seem.

[JohnFredC]

I might add that the numerous requests herein for native TC support of so-called "virtual" or temporary folders are also indicative of users' needs for metadata management tools in TC.