Itâs the question that makes my life easier.
I want to share my absolute favorite question with you.
Itâs a question I get in one form or another all the time. Not a day goes by that I donât.
Itâs simple, and itâs easy for me to deal with.
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My favorite question?
Variations of âIt doesnât workâ are frustratingly common, and easy for me to deal with: I canât, so I donât. Regardless of whom youâre asking, itâs critical to provide them with enough information to be able to help. If you donât, they canât.
It doesnât work
My favorite question of all time is: âIt doesnât work.â
Iâm sure thatâs not what you expected. I mean, itâs not really even a question, is it?
Why is it my favorite?
Because thereâs nothing I can do. Thereâs nothing for me to answer. And since thereâs nothing I can do, I can move on â quickly.
âIt doesnât workâ means âLeo doesnât answer.â Nor will many other people.
Variations on the theme
Now, youâre probably thinking, âLeo, no one asks that question.â
Do I get those exact words? No. But I get questions that boil down to that question in spirit all the time.
Some examples:
- My printer doesnât work.
- I canât print.
- Attachments wonât open.
- I canât log in.
I get variations on this theme all the time. Seriously.
Thereâs no question. No information. No . . . nothing. Just a statement that something doesnât work, without any information to help me understand more.
Iâm only half joking
I use the word âfavoriteâ facetiously. In reality, questions like this often frustrate me because either of two things has to happen:
- I have to embark on what is usually a frustrating game of 20 questions to get the information I need to be able to help.
or
- Whoever asked just isnât going to get an answer. Theyâre not going to hear back from me at all, as a matter of fact. And this frustrates me because I really do want to help.
Since going back and forth trying to tease out more information is frustrating for both of us, and since Iâm usually short on time and long on other questions, you can guess which of those two options is more likely to happen.
I click next and move on.
Even though it saves me a lot of time, I guess itâs not really my favorite question at all. Iâd rather be able to get you an answer.
Getting an answer
So, how do we tip the odds in favor of getting you the answer you need?
Thereâs a long list of things I could say, but Iâll prioritize three things: three things that, if at least thought about for every question, would greatly increase the chances of my being able to answer. (And this applies to asking a tech question of just about anyone you can think of.)
First: Tell me what software youâre running. What version of Windows? What program are you running thatâs giving you difficulty? Is it a program on your PC, or something youâre accessing online via your web browser? And if so, which browser are you using?
Second: Include the exact text of any error message you get. If you tell me, âIt said something like âŠâ thatâs not good enough. Computers are darned picky, and the devil is in those details. âSomething likeâ could mean hundreds of different errors or problems. The exact text of the exact error is a huge shortcut to understanding a lot of issues.
Third: Tell me what you were doing when you had this problem. More than just running your computer ⊠exactly what actions, what keystrokes, what specifically were you doing when whatever it was didnât work? Step by step, if at all possible.
Sometimes one or more of those things wonât apply to your question, and thatâs OK. But at least think about each one in turn, and include the information if it makes sense to you.
I could go on, of course.
- I know terminology is difficult, but it could be worth the time to learn the right words for things to avoid being misunderstood.
- I know the world is becoming seamless, but it could be worthwhile to understand the difference between a program running on your computer and visiting a website.
- I know Microsoft makes this frustratingly difficult, but it could help to understand the difference between Outlook and outlook.com â they are not the same at all â and then use the right name for each.
As I said, I could go on.
Focus on the top three â the software youâre running, the error messages you get, what you were doing â and youâll be miles ahead of a lot of questioners.
And I can promise you, anyone whoâs attempting to answer your questions will appreciate that you took a little extra time to provide the information we need.
Letâs face it ⊠anything is better than âIt doesnât work.â
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After seeing your video, I wondered if people, when they submit their question, should be forced to give more information when they fill out the form, like what the topic of the question is (having to choose between software and hardware, if itâs software, what type of software, etc, etc.) Or would that making asking the question too complex?
My thinking is that it gets too complex. Not all those fields apply to every question, for example. If I *require* answers, then people canât fill them in for some questions. If I donât require answers, many people ignore them. I have thought about it though.
Leo, the form idea would work if you required mandatory answers such as (a) what operating system, (b) provide the exact error message, if any, (c) what steps have you taken to correct the problem, and/or whatever else you deem necessary. The rest could be optional. Why not try a form to see how it works for both you and âthe gang?â No doubt, you would receive good feedback.
Consider the common question âHow do I find someone by their IP address?â âExact error textâ and Operating system donât apply, and there are no âstepsâ. You see what Iâm getting at? There are so many different types of common questions that itâs nearly impossible for me to require components that apply in all cases ⊠or even most cases.
Youâre absolutely right, Leo. If thereâs one thing I canât stand, itâs having to fill out a restrictive online form that demands answers to questions that donât apply and forces me to categorize an issue that doesnât fit into any of their pre-made categories. Arrgh!
I think the better approach is to keep on doing it as you are. Allow your readers broad freedom to posit their questions freely, without the annoying restrictions that forms impose. If their communication skills arenât up to the job, thatâs THEIR problem.
Thanks for all you do. It is only fair â and correct â that we should do what you have asked.
Speaking of online forms that demand answers to questions that donât apply, I actually encountered a webite once that required one to specify oneâs occupation⊠from (get this!) a drop-down list of perhaps a ten enteries, none of which were my occupation (or even remotely close to it), and no âOtherâ or âNot Listedâ entry in sight!
Now, what is one supposed to do about THAT, I should like to know?!?
Click anything. Itâs usually for statistical purposes and it really doesnât matter.
Just to add one further clarification: if it were an optional entry, thatâd have been one thing. But on the website in question, an entry on the âoccupationâ drop-down was actually required, which really left me both frustrated and angry.
I realize that. Thatâs why Iâll put in something random if the dropdown doesnât have my profession.
The opposite holds true too. If a user supplies too much info, that is not helpful. I donât want a 15 minute explanation. I donât care what you ate for breakfast. I donât care what shoes you have on. It is a waste of my time and theirs. Leo â Do you receive emails that supply sentence after sentence that donât apply to the issue, but the end user thinks it is helpful?
This is very common in my tech support world â but itâs usually because people donât have the faintest idea what is causing the problem. If they think itâs their shoes, they are going to mention that in great detail. People will explain in great detail how frustrated they are, how much of their valuable time they have wasted, and fail to mention that they are trying to do some complicated computing on an old Android phone.
It surprises me that few people use their favorite search engine to find an answer â thatâs generally what I do when presented with a new problem â I usually start with their exact words and work from there.
The entire job test for the job as Ask Leo! was a test of our search skills. Knowing how to use a search engine is one of the most important skills in todayâs world. If you have good search skills, you have almost the entire compendium of the worldâs knowledge. As they said in many college courses, âYou can use the textbook in an exam. When you get out, youâll always have the books. The important thing is how to use the books.â Effectively used, the Internet is the textbook for almost everything we want to learn.
I have to disagree Jon. It is much easier to filter out the details that donât apply, than it is to play 20 questions to get the details you need. I had a case once where it took 2 days to figure out that static electricity zapped the handset microphone on a users VoIP phone, when the ticket was simply people cannot hear me when I call them. Thankfully a vendor gave me a tip after it took them 3 months and 6 phones to figure out a warehouse worker was building up too much static electricity and zapping their phone on a regular basis. Once I narrowed down the problem, I said, I imagine you ran to the phone in your fluffy slippers and got shocked. The user was surprised that I guessed what happened and that the phone shocked her on the chin. Had original details included, I ran to the phone in my pink fluffy slippers and got zapped when I picket it up, now people canât hear me, it would have saved both of us a lot of time.
I think it is a balance. Too little is frustrating, like Leo states. Too much can be a waste. Connieâs statement is a good example. I think my issue is where the user supplies TOO MUCH info on what THEY think is important and then they supply TOO LITTLE on what actually happened.
I do, but theyâre not nearly at the level of questions with insufficient information.
Nothing to do with Microsoft.. Am using Firefox for browser, and Thunderbird as mail handler. I loaded a new update 31.6.0. Now when on incoming msg screen, have lost inbox, sent file, archive, spam ect. These where down the left side of screen before. Any idea how to get these back.?? Have tried to contact Mozella but they are harder to contact than a bunny rabbit on roller skates.. Worked on this problem all day yesterday⊠Thanks for any help you can suggest..
Go to View, Layout, and check Folder Pane.
I enjoyed the video and can understand your frustration at your âfavorite question.â The video got me thinking and wondering what other information would also be helpful to those who are trying to help us less than tech savy people.
Have you entertained the idea of making a post of your Top Ten helpful info bits? A lot along the lines of David Lettermanâs Top Ten, without the snarkiness. Just a thought.
Joe
P.S. Thank you for all you do.
Actually the related article âwhy wonât you answer my questionâ discusses that a bit, but what you suggest would be helpful.
Very well done video. I have seen many times in various discusion forums on subjects other than computers, just what you are saying. It makes you shake your head and start asking questions. In your case, you just do not have the time to do that and must move on.
Hi. No questions. Iâm an old . an retired , computer Tec. from the â Main frame days. I read your e-mails and Ask Bob mostly to attempt to keep up with the world of computers as best I can. In â My dayâ the thing was is it a â Hardware â or âSoftwareâ problem. Every systemâs software was Written for that system.
Today its all software? Not always so, but mostly. Hard for an 81 year old to keep up. Even my younger computer friends have problems. Glad to have someone
to read to help. Enjoy your articles. Keep up the good work. ELS X-CDC tech. ( Control Data Corp. )
CDC was my first computer :-). Cyber 70 back in school.
Very relevant post Leo, thank you. Your video kept reminding me of when I hear the dreaded âthey saidâ or âthey told meâ. I always feel like an owl. Who? Who? Who are âtheyâ? I have to give credit to anyone who works in technical support. It is inconceivable to most how a seemingly simple problem can be incredibly complex in nature.
As mentioned, many of us are not absolutely clear as to terminologyâŠ..because weâre not totally sure what to call âitâ. Whole new language for many. Synonyms might be confusing. Glossary of top 100 terms likely on google.
Have you seen Leoâs glossary site: https://glossary.askleo.com/
He also includes a glossary term in each newsletter to help us learn them one by one.
Hi Leo!
Having spent most of the last 30 years or so building, configuring, supporting and troubleshooting PCs, I know exactly what you mean âItâs not working!â
Most of the problems come to me in a vague sentence that requires more troubleshooting than the actual issue.
Another thing is users trying to make themselves sound smarter than they really are. Only if they would keep it simple.
Thanks Leo!, for all that you do! Itâs a lot of work, and Itâs priceless! Itâs entertaining AND helps keep us up to date on things.
PS. The thingy that was on my computer before isnât. What do I do? :)
Hi Leo,
Thanks for being a great resource (I also bought all your books). While you deal with the âprinted wordâ, I work mostly on the phone with the added dimension of hearing the irate (or panicked customer). Hereâs a scenario many of your readers will identify with:
Customer: (Panicked) âNOTHING WORKS!â
Me: (Calmly) âOK lets take it one thing at a time: Do you see anything on the monitor?â
Customer: âWhy, of course. What do you want me to tell you?â
Me: âOK, well at least we know the Monitor works, Now how about the Mouse: can you see the cursor move when you move the Mouse?â
The smart one catch on pretty quick and get down to describing the problem, and I rarely have to ask another STUPID question to get them to focus.
This is not a new favorite question. I used to get it all the time, even from âcomputer professionals.â
People expect computer geeks to just wave a magic wand and fix it. (I actually used to keep a magic wand at my desk for just that purpose. It was a toy; black plastic with white tips. But it made my point.)
These same people would not call their car mechanic and say âMy car wonât run. Whatâs wrong with it?â But that doesnât mean they wonât expect miracles from you and me.
I feel for ya, Leo.
Leo, Thank you for the videos and all that you do in helping us be better computer users.
âIt Just doesnât Work!â â What: Clicking on the header link in your âBest of Ask Leo!â newsletter emails. How: Received email in the Outlook 2010 client under Windows 7 or the Verizon.net web interface with Firefox. Outlook 2010 Error: Nothing happens. What should happen: Default Browser should open and display that page on askleo.com. Verizon error: âThe address isnât valid. The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded.â
Whatâs really wrong: The link is *incorrect*, it is pointing at: â<http://askleo.com/how_do_i_get_wireless_internet/" (sic) Note the first character of the link is "<" which apparently breaks it.
Your usual newsletters are ok (like this one), it's just the 'Best of' series that has the error â I suspect something is wrong your your template.
I can relate to this. I regularly help users on a few Reddit threads, and the Reddit clientele is⊠well⊠varied. Many requests for help are one or two-liners, completely missing relevant context, error messages, etc.
The worst thing is, when I ask questions to get whatâs missing, some people just wonât answer. They will just add extra questions and pointless complaints on the line of âI cannot loginâ. Even saying âplease answer my questionsâ wonât work.
Thereâs also the type who will act offended and insult you when the answer is not to his liking. The Reddit machine is not providing what I expected (instant gratification of my desires), so I kick the Reddit machine.
Finally, a growing number of users ask questions on a phone, the tiny screens and keyboards of which encourage people to stick to a few bursts of words.
Thank you Leo. I am admin on a printer support group, and I get this every day. Even when I ask questions, they generally give some kind of answer but fail to give the information I requested. . Sometimes I think theyâre just there to see how much of my time they can waste.
If itâs OK by you, I might reply to woefully incomplete questions with a link to this articleâŠ
Giving someone such as you the exact error message may be an exercise in frustration. When I get an odd error message, my instinct is to copy it into Google and see what turns up, but our friends at Microsoft have somehow made the worst error messages uncopiable. Click it? Nothoing. Right click? Nothing. Try to highlight the text and copy it with control C? Nothing. So I have to copy a string of gibberish numbers onto paper. No thank you. That paper wonât paste into an inquiry. And you canât google a screenshot, can you?
Any solution to the uncopiable error message would be appreciated.
Many screen capture utilities (I use SnagIt, myself) have OCR capabilities that will allow you to grab or capture the text. Even just uploading a screencap to Google Docs may also do it. Ultimately, though, OCR really is the only action in a case like that. Or laboriously typing it.
Leoâs response is certainly a solution, but if youâre complaining about writing an error code on paper and typing it in Google then youâre going to get more frustrated with any OCR application. Thatâll take you off on another tangent with its own glitches. How this relates to Leoâs article is that in order to solve a technical problem it takes an awful lot of patience and perseverance dealing with details. So, writing down an error code and typing it is not the problem, nor the solution.
As for Microsoft not making text selectable, yes thatâs a pain.
The people I support just want their computer to work so they can do their job. They donât know much about them, and what they do know is often wrong. What version of Windows? âI think itâs pretty recent.â What program? âMicrosoft.â And thatâs okay, they know their jobs, and I know mine. I walk them through screens to get the info I need, or better yet, ask them to click the little Windows icon in the lower left corner and type âquickâ to open Quick Assist.
Hi Leo â thanks for all your great work. I donât think Iâm the dumbest user, but am pretty close. One point about the error messages; donât just copy them, READ them â sometimes (rarely) the answer is there. (Not counting such useful info such as âCould not connectâ or âUnknown errorâ of course.)
Donât call yourself dumb.
Definitely frustrating when the error message itself boils down to a variation of âit doesnât workâ. ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ