Found 3 Bugs in 15 Minutes, or Am I Missing Something?

[mikea144 36]

Hi,

 

Even though the new EN is missing a must-have feature for me (hiding the right panel) I thought I'd give the new version a try.  I installed it, then reinstalled the legacy version, and made a copy of a note to test with (because the new version permanently strips all image indentation information from the note which for me breaks the note).  I then did a little testing.  I assumed I could edit a note with both versions as long only one EN version was open at once. 

 

First (as suggested by or8m8 on this forum) I tried the note option /Note/Note Width/Optimize Readibility to see if that would be an acceptable circumvention of the problem of removal of the image indentation capability.  When I tried this option it had no effect: it just didn't work.  The indentation of every image in the note was unchanged.  

 

I then noticed that I had a mixture of fonts and font sizes in the document that I hadn't noticed in the legacy version.  In the new version I selected everything in the note (Ctrl-A) and used the pull-downs at the top to set the font and font size.  However that also had no discernible effect on the fonts or font sizes.  Later I tried this using the legacy version and it worked fine.  

 

During my testing at one point the legacy version showed 2 notes with the identical name and attributes.  However later on the duplicate had disappeared.  Since it was just a test I didn't notice if some edits disappeared too. 

 

Am I missing something?  Shouldn't I be able to alternatively edit a note as long as only one version is open?  Is there something else I'm doing wrong?  Or did I just happen to discover 3 bugs in 15 minutes of testing?  

 

Mike

[CalS 5,280]

The two versions are supposed to cohabitate. 

IAC, I'm sticking with the legendary app, 6.25.1 on Windows, until EN gets more of this stuff sorted.  I don't want to risk a group of notes getting borked using both versions.  And hopefully soon EN will add back the key bits of feature still missing in V10 that I need.  An improvement in processing speed would be nice as well, best I can tell from viewing the forums.  V10 seems to be okay for lighter users, not so much for power users.

[PinkElephant 8,096]

Only 3 bugs in 15 min ? C‘mon, try again - you can do better !

Or what is the message you want to communicate ?

[mikea144 36]

2 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Only 3 bugs in 15 min ? C‘mon, try again - you can do better !

Or what is the message you want to communicate ?

You're right: my guess is that I could do better!  But how much am I going to get paid to find and document these bugs?  Or is the plan that I just keep plugging along reporting problems because I want a tool that I heavily rely on and pay good money for to work correctly?  I guess that's a good plan from Evernote's perspective: they save on QA because their users do the work for free that they should do before releasing the product. 

 

My message is that I wish Evernote would do a better job of QA, not release new versions that remove critical features, and in general treat their customer base with greater respect.  New features and architecture are great, as long as you don't break the product for your loyal users who just want to keep using it without a huge investment in bug reporting and personal workflow changes.  

[PinkElephant 8,096]

Well, you got that right, finding 3 bugs in 15 minutes IMHO may not be that difficult if the software has a lot of them. It just made me smile because you picked 3 issues I regard as annoying, but not really mission critical. We had worse than that, plenty of it, and I am quite happy we can now discuss stuff like that, having the real bad ones (mostly) crushed.

No QA will ever eliminate all bugs in a product. No QA will ever imagine everything users will do with a product or service, or check whether a function will work under all circumstances. This was IMHO one of the main problems of the old, native clients, because each one hat it’s own set of problems, and when you fixed say the Windows client, the Mac client was still unattended.

Because of all that, I prefer not to behave as a victim to evil forces - if I run into an issue, I send them a support ticket about it. If we do it all, management will easily find out that it is much cheaper to listen themselves to ONE quality guy, than to employ a big staff that has to listen and answer to a lot of angry users. Maybe they have learned this lesson by now - at least the releases are getting better, more stable and with interesting features. I assume that somebody is watching out for quality today at EN HQ.

[mikea144 36]

PinkElephant,

 

I've sent in a lot of support tickets.  For the last one I sent 7 emails, tried some things they suggested but didn't help, generated a log, and recorded (using an application I had to install on my PC) the actions that caused the bug.  In other situations I've also sent in an Evernote note that I crafted (to avoid exposing personal information) that demonstrated the problem.  In this and other cases after a long series of emails and work on my part they've agreed that the malfunction exists, and then said they won't fix it.  I think they're making a diligent and competent effort, but nevertheless when I report a problem I have to be prepared to invest a significant chunk of my time and effort and at the same time realize that there's a good chance that the bug won't be fixed.  Sometimes it just doesn't seem worth it. 

 

Mike

[PinkElephant 8,096]

My position is very simple: If I happen to find something that looks like a malfunction, and have a minute to spare, I send a support ticket. Since on the initial ticket I can’t send a screenshot or little video, I may save one really quick and with system tools, nothing fancy. Doing it then is much easier than days later try to replicate things.

When they come back and ask for a little more detail, I may send this, and a few more words.

And that is it. 

It is not my job to convince support that it is a bug - usually there is no need to, because they agree (if you receive a carefully reviewed text, you know they know, because there is already this text stamped out for it). It is not my job to make them act on it. Maybe they can advise on a workaround - fine with me at this moment.

And so I move on. Many times there will be a release, and I see, they fixed it. Some of what I send is still open. That’s life.

And yes, be kind to the guys at support. They may or may not deserve it (most do), but you feel better if you did. Believe me !