The following is a description of the separate, and non-free, user guide for GpsPrune. The book is now available for purchase (see below for payment details). This is a more detailed manual for the program, going into more depth and with more details than the information provided on this website.
You've seen GpsPrune, you've used it, and hopefully you find it useful. Perhaps you wonder what else it can do, maybe you'd like more detailed examples of how to use it, or hints and tips for using it more effectively. Maybe you would appreciate having a quickly-searchable reference guide which is easy to take with you and use offline. The question is, would you pay for such a thing?
This guide is available in two formats: PDF (for viewing in a pdf reader application, perhaps also for printing) and also EPUB (for viewing on a reader device or with a reader application such as Calibre). Buy once, and you'll receive both versions (all without any kind of DRM shenanigins). Plus when the next version comes out, you'll get that free. Plus when the version after that comes out, you can choose to buy that at a reduced rate if you want to.
[New] - the user guide for version 24 is now available (also valid for the patches up to 24.4), obviously including updated colour screenshots and URLs.
The following pdf (14 pages, 436 kB) shows a preview of the book, including the contents pages and the entire "Viewing maps" chapter.
The full pdf contains 194 pages of A4, and weighs in at 5.0 Megabytes. It's around 75 thousand words if that means anything to you. There are 18 chapters, as shown in the contents section above, and it includes over 150 colour screenshots and over 120 helpful URLs. The EPUB version contains the same content, but obviously with different formatting and reflowing text for different screen sizes and different font sizes.
To purchase your copy, there are two ways to buy, either with Payhip (which is a more automatic process) or using Amazon gift certificates (which is a slower process and requires you to reveal your email address).
Either way, you get a link to the download page. From this page, you can choose to download the pdf, or the epub, or both, as many times as you like. Also this page will be updated with any changes or errors as required.
The product page at payhip.com is here: https://payhip.com/b/seE18 from which you can pay by credit card (obviously ActivityWorkshop never receives any of your credit card details, that's all handled by Payhip and Stripe).
Or you can see the whole range of products at payhip.com/ActivityWorkshop.
What you actually receive when you buy this product isn't a pdf or an epub, it's a small text file with links to download pages for both version 24 and version 25. Obviously version 25 isn't available yet, but you get the link already.
Upgrade - If you've bought a user guide before, then that makes you a valued customer :) and you can get a reduced price on an upgrade. The final result is the same — you get download links for versions 24 and 25. See the details from your previous purchase to get access to the upgrade.
If you already have an Amazon account at .de, .uk or .com, you can send a gift certificate making it payable to tim (at) activityworkshop.net. On receipt of the certificate, you will receive by email a web link from which you can download the pdf and/or epub files. I will endeavour to process these as quickly as possible, but even in the best case you should allow a day or two. Depending on where you live, there are currently these options:
Very Important: You need to include your email address in the note so that I can send you the link to the user guide. Amazon doesn't pass on your email address automatically, so if you don't tell me, I have no way to contact you. Needless to say, this email address will not be passed on to anyone else, and will only be used for providing the links to the user guide. If you have trouble entering your email address, just write it in full like "user at something dot com".
Please do not send any Amazon gift certificates for www.amazon.es, www.amazon.at, www.amazon.it, www.amazon.com.br, www.amazon.in, www.amazon.com.mx, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.ca or www.amazon.cn - due to their crazy system the gift certificates from one Amazon can't be transferred to another Amazon for me to use them.
If you've sent your payment but haven't received your user guide, please get in contact, and give the id of the code you sent, or your full name.
Alternatively, if there are other gift vouchers you'd prefer to use instead of Amazon ones, then please get in touch to discuss your preference -- if the voucher is emailable and I'm able to make use of it then let's investigate!
Paying with bitcoin was previously offered as an alternative way of purchasing the guide, and had the advantage of being immediate, without any emails and without any waiting. Unfortunately this method of buying the guide was never very popular, and so with version 6 of the guide this payment method was discontinued -- and also the website I was using for this has died. Please get in touch if you think it's worth reviving this idea, and especially if you know of platforms which can provide this service.
These aren't particularly "Frequently asked questions", but instead more "Preemptive questions", for clarification.
Why isn't it free? - because writing (and maintaining) a book like this takes a lot of time, and my time isn't free. Just because GpsPrune is free, doesn't mean that everything I do is.
Does that mean GpsPrune isn't free any more? - GpsPrune remains free. Free to use, free to modify and distribute, Free as in beer and Free as in Freedom. And GpsPrune remains completely opposed to any sneaky tricks like demo versions, premium versions, trial versions, unlock keys, or bait-and-switch trickery. GpsPrune is free and will remain so.
Does that mean there's no free support any more? - this website remains free to use, as are the youtube videos, and both will continue to be updated. Free support will continue to be given on the sourceforge forums, on github and by email. Nothing changes there.
Does that mean that development of GpsPrune has stopped? - on the contrary. Writing the book has helped find and iron out quite a few niggles that probably wouldn't otherwise have been found. Development of GpsPrune is ongoing and version 24.5 has recently been released.
Do I have to buy the book? - of course not. You should only buy the book if you have looked at the contents and consider that it's worth the money to you.
Is the book only in English? - Yes, the book has only been written in English. I'm not comfortable enough in other languages to do a decent job of this size.
Why do you use that strange spelling for the word 'color' with an extra 'u'? - force of habit. If you prefer to see the spellings 'color', 'colorer' and 'meter', you can easily switch GpsPrune itself into US-spelling mode, but there is only one version of the user guide.
Do I have to buy again for each new version? - Whichever way you choose to pay, the purchase price covers the current version of the user guide and the next version too. The version after that can then be bought at a specially reduced price, if you wish.
When is the next version of the user guide going to be released? - Changes for the versions 24.* will be noted in the "errors and updates" section of the download page. The next version of the guide will accompany version 25 of GpsPrune, and will be available for free to those who purchased version 24. Usually the guide is made available either at the same time as the GpsPrune release, or as soon afterwards as possible.
Is this the only book you have written? - So far, yes. Some other ideas for potential future books are being raised in the Books section of the site.