F1 help is not much help at all

[STHRevit]

Ok, I was attending my local Revit user group last night and the subject of Scope Box's came up. The subject was quickly changed without too much explanation being given to how they work.

I was curious to see what they could do. So first thing today I opened up my 2011 Revit , brought up the help, using F1 and searched in the Help file for Scope Box.
Imagine my surprise when the response was "No Subject Found"

I then opened 2010 and searched in that help file and had several responses for the same search and was able to find exactly what I was looking for.

Why is this? Just lucky I had 2010 installed I guess.

[jeffh]

Ok, I was attending my local Revit user group last night and the subject of Scope Box's came up. The subject was quickly changed without too much explanation being given to how they work.

I was curious to see what they could do. So first thing today I opened up my 2011 Revit , brought up the help, using F1 and searched in the Help file for Scope Box.
Imagine my surprise when the response was "No Subject Found"

I then opened 2010 and searched in that help file and had several responses for the same search and was able to find exactly what I was looking for.

Why is this? Just lucky I had 2010 installed I guess.

The 2011 Web based help was recently updated to use Google search to index and find search terms. I just ran a test looking for scope box in 2011 help and came up with 2 pages of results. (See image)

It is possible if you were not connected to the internet when you performed your search you got the local version of Web help which is not indexed by google and uses a cifferent search tool. In 2011 unfortunatly the search tool is not working correctly and you sometimes have to search the same term 2x to get results or you can use the index to search reasonably well too.

[MikeJarosz]

Many of the 2011 drop down menus say "F1 for more" and I get "not found". The search box is even worse.

I'm writing this from memory, so I will collect specifics and post them properly. But I have to say that the Autodesk provided help could use a lot of improvement. Might they have gotten lazy relying on third party "how to" manuals that cost $60 and are obsolete in one year?

[iru69]

The current "help" is so fatally flawed to its very foundation that it's really pointless for any of us to try and explain all the things wrong with it. It is, almost laughably, absurdly horrible.

The old help files based on the chm files were quite decent for drilling down and finding stuff, if not always comprehensive enough in subject.

[wmullett]

We installed the HELP locally so that we did not have to use the internet version. That works much better.

[STHRevit]

The 2011 Web based help was recently updated to use Google search to index and find search terms. I just ran a test looking for scope box in 2011 help and came up with 2 pages of results. (See image)

It is possible if you were not connected to the internet when you performed your search you got the local version of Web help which is not indexed by google and uses a cifferent search tool. In 2011 unfortunatly the search tool is not working correctly and you sometimes have to search the same term 2x to get results or you can use the index to search reasonably well too.

Hi Jeff, definitely had an internet connection.

I tried again with a few combinations, this time typing in "scope boxs" and yes did get a hit with some replies.

What I find interesting is that the term used in Revit, on the View tab is "Scope Box" Would it not make sense that the term you use to search in the help file should actually match the term used in the program itself?