There have, over time, been countless attempts to make user tutorials for almost everything. From J2C’s Tip sections to JCF’s FAQ, there have been tips and Frequently Asked Questions for almost everything in existance. Levels seem to have even more tutorials alloted to them. This is only the second name making tutorial I have ever seen. The first would be the old Jazz2City one, which definitely set the golden standard. However, this tutorial is not gold anything. The entire document’s contents could have easily been turned into an article or a JCF post, and it is a bad idea to have uploaded it here. Then again, a name tutorial is not all that useful anyway. Nearly everyone who uses Jazz2Online and frequents the download section probably is already aware of how to change the color of their name (along with a short list of other effects) and does not need any reminding. There is, amazingly, a mistake in the exact first instruction that makes the entire document as a whole practically useless:
1-Open Regedit by typing “redegit” in the “Run…” selection in the “Start Menu”.
While some may realize that you probably wouldn’t open Regedit by misspelling its name, others would find the generated error a little dismaying. Regardless, it is unacceptable to make such major errors in a document that is supposed to make the whole process simpler. And then, another oversight on the second instruction:
2-Open “HKEY_USERS”.
While I always do use HKEY_CURRENT_USER (the data is stored in both), some choose not to. However, this presents a problem. The next instruction calls for the user to open the DEFAULT user, which may not effect the other users when the change is applied. Thus, there is some chance that all the effort that is put into this will be nullified by a small oversight like this. Sigh. After the normal instructions of navigating to the Jazz Jackrabbit 2 key area, it makes another oversight. It tells the user to either go to 1.23 or 1.24, when, in fact, 1.24 is stored elsewhere. Also, not all users have 1.23, so the instructions would be better off saying “go to the highest number you can find.” In addition to this, the instructions have no wording to alert the person who is changing the keys to the fact that some of the steps involve making changes to keys that appear in Regedit’s right hand side pane. I can picture some poor soul desperately trying to find “Player0” on the left pane, completely looking over the fact that it is actually on the right side. There are a few small inconsistincies that are too small to mention in the instructions for writing, colorizing, and changing the characters in your name, but these small glitches are no where near the forementioned bugs such as the misspelling of “Regedit.” After telling the person how to change their name, it offers some “neat tricks” that you can do with your name in fair detail. However, it does leave out one big thing: squished names. The use of §(1-9) before a name can let your name become squished. This is often used, and I have been asked how to do it many times. I believe it should at least include how to do that. Also, it forgets to mention the “stealth mode name”, but that isn’t as common knowledge as squishy names are. There are a few typoes (such as where the writer mentions how to “remove the two dots before your name in chat”, when he obviously meant “remove the two dots after your name (before your text) in chat.) That’s pretty much all that is in the document. But just as I was considering whether it should warrant a 2 or 3 verdict, I noticed one huge oversight: the author forgot to tell you how to backup Regedit, or even warn what damage it may cause. Big oops there. This is completely and absolutely intolerable in a document such as this. This can seriously damage someone’s computer if they do not properly backup the registry first. And the writing did not even mention the harm that this can cause. This could easily damage someone’s Windows installation or even stop it from booting. For this, I reduce the verdict to a 1.2. I was wondering why I gave it a 1 before when it had some useful information, but now I know. The morale of the story: if you are going to release a how-to document, make an article that you can easily edit, and make sure to warn when editing the registry. Always. I will give it a verdict of 1.2 and absolutely no download recommendation until this document is revised to not be potentially dangerous and also more useful information is added.
[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]