In the last five years or so, Apple’s user documentation has advanced dramatically. I don’t know exactly why, but I would attribute it in part to the demise of Macworld magazine (see “Macworld Lay Off Staff, Shut Down Print Edition”). September 10, 2014). Within a few years, some former Macworld writers and editors landed jobs at Apple, an experience a friend called “surreal” after covering the company for two decades. There, they joined other well-known figures in the industry. that had made it to Apple’s documentation team. Since then, I’ve detected a clear upward trend in terms of the usefulness, clarity, and completeness of Apple’s documentation. (And when I send corrections to a friend of mine, they are corrected.
What hasn’t advanced in this era is the search engine on Apple’s website, which is extraordinarily bad for 2024. For example, think you need more information about dictation in macOS 14 Sonoma. If you search for “Sonoma dictation” on Apple’s Help site, check out an article on how to control your home with Siri, release notes for two Sonoma security updates, an article on Sonoma’s new features, 4 more release notes from the Sonoma security update, and regardless, the desired article “Dictate Messages and Documents on Mac”. Even worse, none of the items above the desired one in the search effects comes with the word “dictation”. Come on, Apple!
Even when Apple’s search engine is up and running, it combines articles, documentation, and discussions on the Apple network forums. You can clear the effects that come with only one of those categories at a time, but how many users will know the difference between articles and documentation?
Fortunately, Google, Brave Search, and Bing are doing a better job. At least a dozen times a week, I search for Apple documentation by adding “Apple Support” to my search terms. The desired article seems to be the most sensible of all. Look for engines. I asked them to locate “Sonoma Apple Dictation Support. “
In short, search for information on Apple’s internet sites using a separate search engine. Using Apple’s is a waste of time. I hope everyone at Apple realizes that too, and it’s just one of the things that hasn’t been given enough attention yet.
Apple’s search features can be terrible, but the company has just created a screening method to make its full documentation more easily available to users. The new documentation provides a repository of searchable data organized across the product.
In classic Apple fashion, its name is hard to pin down. The top-level tag is “Documentation”, however, the name of the main page is “Manuals, Specifications, and Downloads”, and all HTML page names say “Manuals and Downloads”, even when they imply a link to the specifications. I’ll stick to the documentation, partly because the URL is https://support. apple. com/docs.
The documentation site is available in several languages (I have shown French, German, Italian, and Spanish) and in English at least for the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. I’m not sure exactly what’s more in each, but even high-end elements are replaced sometimes, probably because Vision Pro is rarely available yet.
Whatever you do, don’t use the search box or go back to Apple hell to search for results.
Click a category icon to jump to a page that chronologically lists up to 12 existing and recent products, with a Show More link to reveal the remaining parts in that category. Some main categories, such as accessories, have subcategories at the top, so you can explore AirTag, AirPort, keyboards, mice, and trackpad, as well as adapters and cables separately. This is especially useful because the collection of top-level accessory pages is oddly organized until you realize it’s chronological in each subcategory.
For hardware products, Apple provides online versions of the minimum documentation that comes in the box, as well as a hardware consultant (MacBook Air Essentials) and the full operational formula user consultant (macOS User Guide). Repair manuals are also included when available. Each hardware product also has a link to the technical specifications.
The software is more frustrating. The Mac category has a subcategory for macOS, however, for each edition of macOS, Apple only reliably includes a link to the macOS User Guide. Once you’re back to macOS 10. 15 Catalina, the page also includes links to all updates. macOS 11 Big Sur and later editions don’t have such update links, but they’re actually not useful — it’s hard to believe that almost anyone needs to update an earlier edition of macOS to a specific intermediate edition.
What if you need an installer for an older edition of macOS?The documentation pages may not help, although a quick internet search for “install Apple macOS support” shows the “How to download and install macOS” page in the App Store or Direct download links for all macOS editions to the operating system. X10. 7 Lion. Why those download links on the related documentation pages?
The Software category is even weirder, with 3 randomly selected subcategories. The consumer software comes with the now-defunct iLife apps: iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, and GarageBand. With some of them, locate downloads for the actual app; others simply come with add-ons or add-ons. While some productivity software programs (iWork apps) and professional software (Logic, Final Cut Pro X, etc. ) are still in active development, almost everything here is old. page links to existing user guides for each of Apple’s platforms, but not to Pages and Numbers pages. It’s a hodgepodge and I’d like to see Apple load more links to modern versions of its apps.
The wonderful merit of the documentation site is that it makes it easier to access Apple’s clever user consultants. The navigation within them is usually self-explanatory, and search fields that say “Find this consultant” are useful because they restrict their effects to the consultant in question. But there’s one vital control I should highlight: the Select Version context menu on the most sensitive page of all internal pages.
This pop-up menu allows you to travel back in time to previous editions of the page you’re viewing. The precise date depends on when the feature in question was introduced and when Apple introduced those user guides. Many pages date back to 2017 (macOS 10. 13 High Sierra) or 2018 (iOS 12). Mac Essentials guides are replaced multiple times depending on the macOS edition to account for the adjustments needed to accommodate new models.
I realize my desires are unusual, but I use the edit menu to find out when a feature was introduced or how Apple replaced the way it explains a feature. For most people, the main reason you know about the edit menu is that you might end up on a different page edit than the one you want.
Overall, Apple’s new documentation is welcome and I inspire everyone to mark it as a long-term reference. Ironically, I had created an Arc folder containing pinned tabs for all of Apple’s user guides just before it appeared. I’m going to continue with this folder and load a top-level detail into the Array documentation
Each week, get tech tips, in-depth reviews, and news research applicable to Apple’s most discerning users. For more than 33 years, we’ve been publishing subsidized progenerational journalism through our members that makes it smarter.
A registration confirmation will be sent to you via email.
Thanks for this article, @ace. I don’t look at Apple’s documentation enough.
The rest is beside the point, making Apple’s search engine look good.
What hasn’t taken a step forward in this era is Apple’s web search engine, which is extraordinarily bad for 2024.
On Amazon, I can type in the manufacturer and home of a product, get a drop-down menu with the exact product I want, that item, and have it nowhere to appear on the effects search page.
In the last five years or so, Apple’s user documentation has advanced dramatically. I’m sure why, but I’d attribute it in part to the demise of Macworld magazine.
I suspect that a growing push for the right to correct also has something to do with this improvement in demonstrating documentation for users. Good apple.
Tip: You can force Google to search only in the Docs by typing “:” into the Google search box.
For the example of @ace, see MacBook Air (M2, 2022). You write:
Site: support. apple. com/en-us/docs MacBook Air M2 2022
It works on DDG. I use it all the time.
Unfortunately, the most common is an AFAICT façade.
Aside from the fact that the studies are bad and the data irrelevant (e. g. iLife?), when it comes to more detailed data on software and service specifications, they simply don’t exist. Will it ever get better? Who knows.