And easy to find documentation.
There’s a PL3 pdf but going through the website I couldn’t find it. I needed Google to find it.
Trying https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/articles/ says it doesn’t exist. I don’t know what is going on.
George
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Hmmm,
my google search for “dxo lab user guide”,
first result https://support.dxo.com/hc/de/articles/360031083971-DxO-PhotoLab-3-Benutzerhandbuch-PDF-version-
Link is https://userfiles-kb.s3.amazonaws.com/userfiles/1354/25852/manual.pdf
Working for german version
Looking with additional search string “english”
Link is https://userfiles-kb.s3.amazonaws.com/userfiles/1354/25853/manual.pdf
Working for english version
Within DXO
Help Menue - online Support und Ressourcen - https://support.dxo.com/hc/de - Documentation - Benutzerhandbuch …If you klick at Release Notes Win you got the PDF https://download-center.dxo.com/Support/docs/PhotoLab_v3/current_release_note/Release_Notes_DxO_PhotoLab3_Win_DE.pdf
Hi everyone,
About having an easy access to the DxO PhotoLab User Guide: we are thinking about having a direct link to the PDF right in the help menu 
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Pffff…too easy what is with training my brain 
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Actually, the PL3 PDF documentation can be obtained from the online documentation page. Go to it and click on the 3 dots button at the right of the language selection dropdown in the blue bar. From there you can export the full documentation as a PDF file.
Unfortunately, this PDF appears to be generated automatically and has a lot of formatting quirks. The table of contents in the PDF reader is say, exotic and at 100%, the font size is too small. All this gives it an unprofessional look.
Maybe also from within the website. Seems to me the most natural place for it. To be clear, I mean the pdf.
George
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Actually, I think that an updated PDF version of the documentation should be installed with any new version. Looking back at the long history of DOP/DPL since version 1, If I remember well, this was the case in older versions. Not sure, though.
Agreed. C1 still has a questionable approach of software documentation despite recent enhancements. At this price level, this is not acceptable.
I’ve a link to “learn & support”. The link Guenterm and I found with Google is not accessible from the website.
George
Ok I’ve got it under https://help-photolab3.dxo.com/de/home …haven’t noticed the 3dots before.
I would like to got the MAC Version PDF too, can anybody share the link
Thanks
Start from the Help menu in the program itself and click on “DxO Photolab Online Help”, then follow the instructions I have given above.
I was referring from within the website, not from within the program.
In the program I did find the html-version but never had thought of such a difficult way to get the pdf. Google was faster.
Still left that there’s is no manual to find via the website.
George
I should have also mentioned that a good documentation can be a very effective marketing teaser. Very often, when I hesitate to install the trial version of a software, I look for the documentation to have a feeling about how it works. If the documentation is easy to find and well written, this is an encouragement to further explore that software.
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Hi to all from within the website it’s a little bit trixky and not userfriendly
-
https://www.dxo.com/ there is no search function on starting page
2.Learn & Support - Customer Support still no search function - DXO Pholab 3…hoooray search function
- put “pdf” in search field …one result
- Link " [DxO PhotoLab 3 User Guide (PDF version)"
Now I go walking and take some Photos
Enjoy the day
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Manuals (for free as a pdf and paying on paper) and books (paying) is always a mark of quality and perenity. Look at Affinity’s books 
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Good detailed lineup of expectations.
i my mind a good documentation is layered in three sections:
1 - global view of what’s in there: getting your driverslicence so to speak.
in text-manual, movieclips and small popups behind the “?”
2- a detailed documentation how to use those functions.: getting comfortable in your with options loaded car to create a optimal workplace. (the urban driver in buzy traffic)
3- a technical documentation: the one who explains how things work in a more deeper manner. like what’s ASB do and ESP and how they interact in certain moments. (race licence.)
So you can stop at any moment at a level your comfortable with.
Video’s are a good supportive media: like watch and see, then read some more about what interested you to learn it’s controls. it’s a visual example what’s possible and how to get some results but less functional for learning the details because it’s to fast or to slow or … pick yours.
Short video clips connected on the tool “?” are great for explaining the functionbuttons.
Indeed a paper/hardcopy does help to make notes and reminders on the side line when studying.
Peter
Yes,
Affinity books are great, or for Lightroom the books by Scott Kelby.
You got a theme or photo, you got an aim, and you are guided through the tools and settings
They explain failures you possible could make and you got killer tips and tricks.
I like the videos by Dan Hughes because they are structured, and for me as non english native speakers it’s important that the trainers don’t have a strong slang.
I remember the time I started working with Lightroom and I love the videos by Julieanne Kost 
. Short videos with mostly one theme you can follow and then apply the workflow to your own photos.
thanks to all the people offer that for free
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I agree I also found the Affinity documentation and video’s good. Videos short to the limited point of the exercise, a training video rather than a multitude of bits a pieces. The few PL videos I have watched, apart from all have been on a Mac while most users appear to be Windows, should have been 2 maybe 3 much shorter ones each covering one thing as the Affinity ones that I have watched do.
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I want to play devil’s advocate here for a moment. I, too, have during my IT career managed a few software development teams, and I, too, have always insisted on documenting both source code and the final product. While the former is still vital (after all, the code must be maintained and evolved), I have changed my mind about the latter.
Why? Because in my experience, user manuals explain in agonizing detail what users already know and don’t tell them a thing about the problem they have that prompted their reaching for the manual in the first place.
I think that when it comes to user manuals, the cost-benefit ration is simply not there. Instructional videos are perfect for getting you started with a new software product. In photography, I use Lightroom/Photoshop CC, ON1 Photo Raw, Luminar, DxO PhotoLab (less and less since I’m now using cameras with Fujifilm sensors that DxO does not support), and the wonderful Nik plug-ins by DxO (and kudos to DxO for having rescued these plugins and continued their development!). I’ve been using photo processing software since the late 1990s, and I have not ever read a user manual for one of these products.
I realize that not everyone feels that way, and that many people are more comfortable with picking up a how-to book. Fine, they can. There are tons of books by many authors that can be purchased. True, this costs money, but why should people who don’t want the books subsidize them by paying higher software prices?
Companies like DxO are extremely good at making software to process photographic images. I doubt they are even half as goof at producing documentation! If you look at what software like PhotoLab or Nik by DxO can do and what its price is, it is nothing short of amazing! Do I want DxO to hire a few technical writers and spend countless hours in meetings discussing how to describe features in a user manual? Nope. if they are able to hire additional people, then let them hire core business people who bring us new features.
I’m not looking to start a huge debate here, but as I said, I’ve been there, and budgets being what they are, I would prefer to see DxO money go to development (hint: X-sensor support) than to user manuals. Your mileage may vary, and rest assured that I do respect your priorities.
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True in my profession, office appliances, many usermanuals where sealed after 5 years of use. Because it’s easier to ask the technision when he’s (or she) is around then poking in a strangly wrote manual.
That’s why i am fan of layered manuals.
Described above. One’s the detailed manuals are written only updating of new features is nessacerry. The first level is a written promotion folder. The second how to use those features in which knobs settings and buttons are there. Last and less interesting for many is how does it do it’s job. The under the hood kind of info.
At last: i read a manual for an hour with no problem if i need to understand something but i don’t keep my focus in a webinair for 60min. I fast forward or skip parts or just dooz off. (video parts are quite good in short single subject , but less good in “see what i can do with this full package” in an hour or more.
Granted i wasn’t very patient at school either when i got long rant’s of words of the teacher… Something with windows and birds outside…