Basic beginner questions

jtwardo

Have I missed the basic Help file? Intro instructions?
I just bought Cookie 5 and have some simple questions: what do the heart, target and star represent? So far I'm assuming the heart indicates a favorite. Why are some of mine unchecked? Why can't I check a few of them? The checks disappear immediately. (Evernote, Goodreads, Hertz . . . ) Why are some of the numbers in the list shown in red as well as black? BASIC stuff . . . What else am I missing? Some simple instructions would sure help. Did I buy a beta version?
Thanks
Jan

PS: I signed up based on the Macworld note. I'll be more cautious about those in future.

SweetP

Hi Jan,
Cookie is a pretty complicated app.
The star represents a browser extension. Is something which you should think twice about before deleting as it contains data for your extensions(Adblock, ghostery etc....)
The target represents tracking cookies.

The associated icons in the bottom right corner of cookie's window are actually buttons. You can click them for related options.

The red text indicates tracking cookies.

Which browser are you seeing the unchecking of favourites in? That is a bug.

jtwardo

Perhaps immodestly, I think I'm capable of handling a 'pretty complicated app'. But don't you think users deserve a few simple pointers, like what the heck the icons and red numbers mean? Especially if the app is 'pretty complicated'?

Thanks for those simple pointers, which help a lot. I've copied them to a note file for future reference. Is there really no Help file, or list of intro instructions for Cookie 5? Potentially a great app I'll probably keep, but a few pointers early on would sure help new users. Or at least some hover-over-tool-tips, maybe?

I mostly use Safari but also have Chrome for a few misbehaved websites. The Favorites column shows both browsers plus All. I finally figured out to check the missing blocks in All, which solved the funny check problem for Safari. BUT . . . Cookie doesn't seem to work with Chrome. All of the tracking cookies and old websites are still there in the list, even after I closed and restarted Chrome. What did I do wrong?

Thanks
Jan

SweetP

Hi Jan
I originally made this app for computer geeks like myself, and are slowly trying to make it more approachable for non-techie people. I ignorantly always assume everyone knows it as well as I do...

I'll look into the checking of safari extensions. Thanks for letting me know.
The removal happens in the background, and can take some time if you have a lot of cookies. If you enable the Option to remove on Quit, cookies are actually deleted twice -once 2s after quit and then again 10s later. This is to avoid conflicts with access to the cookie files, and to remove stubborn data.

I'll also look at adding some kind of indicators in the interface to show functionality (perhaps just on first launch)

Thanks for your feedback,

jtwardo

How about floating, popup tool tips on just about everything? A switch to turn them off in the preferences?