DanceMaster Technical Support

Technical Support Policy
I would like nothing better than to have everyone happily using DanceMaster, and their computers with no problems. I've worked hard to come as close to that goal as I can, but with many hundreds of users, with widly varying levels of computer expertise, on many different combinations of hardware and Operating Systems, there are bound to be some problems from time to time.

One of the things I've done to help prevent problems is to write a pretty extensive (and highly complimented, by the way) User Manual. If you neeed help understanding how something is supposed to work, that is the first place to look. (Click any "Help" button.) There are also Tutorials to help you get started with the Player and with recording music. There is a FAQ page with some of the more common questions (and answers) listed. And if none of those help, there is the DanceMaster Users Group (DMUG) - a bunch of people who use this program and are more than willing to try to help you. Some of them know how to use DM better than I do. Really.

As a last reort, you can email me, and I will do my best to help. But for reasons listed below (and also to help make sure it IS the last resort), I may charge you $75/hour for the time I spend working on your problem. Of course, if your problem is my problem - in other words, if it is due to a bug in DanceMaster - I won't charge you for the time we spend on it. And even if it isn't due to a DanceMaster bug, I'll spend the first half hour working on it for free. But once we've used up that half-hour (even it it takes several separate problems to do so) the meter will start running, and I'll bill you for the time we use.

I have found that the quickest way to solve problems is to "look over your shoulder" at your computer. If you have (or can get to) a high speed Internet connection, we can connect our computers over the "Net", and I can see what is happening on your computer. To enable that, you will have to download and install a small program from www.CrossLoop.com, let me connect to your computer, and we will talk on the phone while we work on your problem.

Why am I charging for support?
Over the last several years, DanceMaster has grown form an interesting experiment (Would it be possible to write a program that would let me stop carrying big boxes of records to dances?) into a more-than full time job. There are (always) lots of nifty features I want to add to the program and (always) a few more bugs to hammer out. Most people use it for years at a time without having a problem, but as DanceMaster becomes more popular, the number of people who do run into an issue of some sort, or need help rebuilding their system after a computer crash, or have forgotten their password, or ...(etc.) continues to grow. And I find myself spending most of my time helping them. I don't begrudge any individual that help - I enjoy solving problems, and as I said earlier, I would really like everybody to continue to be delighted with DanceMaster and their computers. But since this is now my full-time job, I have to be able to get paid for some of the time I spend at it.

DMUG
The DanceMaster Users Group is a group of people who use DanceMaster. It is a forum for asking and answering questions and sharing information about the DanceMaster programs, and is frequented by some very knowledgeable people who are more than willing to help. It is also where announcements of updates to the program are made.

FAQ
This section contains answers to commonly asked questions. It is a good place to start when looking for information about DanceMaster. Go to FAQ.

Downloadable Tools
Here you will find tools that may be useful such as the remote control template and an empty replacement database. Go to Downloadable Tools.

Tutorials
These will take you step-by-step through the process of setting up and operating either the Player or Audacity.

Manuals
"The Bible". Just about everything there is to know about DanceMaster, organized into "How To" and "Reference" sections, to make it easy to get the information you need. Go to the Player On-line Manual, the Player User Manual, the Librarian On-line Manual or the Librarian Printable Manual.