Help file not helpful

SketchUp Pro 2019 version 19.1.173 running on a Mac with Mojave 10.14.4.

When I go to Help > Help Center I get the following page
ok

Then I type in my question, for example, info on the dimension tool. I hit enter and get this page which is of zero help

I tried two browsers (Safari and Firefox) and they both give me the same non-help. However, when I use the same process for LayOut 2019, it takes me to a useful help page. Am I missing something or is there a problem with SketchUp?

The website’s built-in search feature is not that great.

Best to just learn how the help is organzied via the right left hand nav tree.

SketchUp User Guide


Some ppl use Google site search instead to search SketchUp help pages.
https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahelp.sketchup.com+dimensions

2 Likes

Dan,
I remember in earlier versions of SketchUp free/make using help would take the user to a useful page. Unfortunately that process has gone down the tubes. Yeah, I can eventually get to the info I want but it sure isn’t as easy or straightforward as it could/should be.

So I guess the answer to my question is, yes, I’m missing something, namely the old straightforward help file :frowning:

I find that if I, activate the DimensionTool, open the Instructor panel, and click the “learn about more advanced operations…” link at the bottom of the Instructor’s tool content, that a browser window opens direct to the https://help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/adding-text-labels-and-dimensions-model page.

Can you suggest specific changes to it’s organization that @jody could use to better the system?

Personally, I see (and like) that many of the old meaningless article numbers have been replaced with plain language page names in the help URLs.

The old help page’s are a thing of the past. (You might use a wayback machine or other archive site to find them, but they’d be out of date and not reflect new features and changes to many of SketchUp’s tools.)

Trimble has spent several years a bunch of money on the new Drupal based user guides. (A lot of the content came from the old help articles, but has been reorganized somewhat.)

However, the in-built search feature has been the subject of numerous repetitive complaints.
@jody, has anything been proposed in this regard lately ?

Dan,
I like your idea about using the instructor tool to get to the help page and hopefully I can remember to do it that way, but I’d still like to see the search function fixed since I’m not always looking for help with a tool.

1 Like

FWIW. On Mac, you used to have a question mark at the bottom left, which took you directly to the specific help page of the tool that is active.

Mike,
I think the operative phrase here is “used to have” as there is no question mark anywhere on the bottom (or top) of the page with SketchUp Pro 2019 on a Mac running Mojave. I don’t remember such a question mark on earlier versions of SketchUp or Mac OS but perhaps it was there and I just never noticed it.

Could you clarify the “right hand nav tree?”


not in mobile…

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As Mike shows, it is labeled “Chapters”, is on the “right-hand”* side of the page, and is used for navigating the help articles.

* The user guides and help has be changed so that the navigation list is now on the left.

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