Convoluted Update Proceedure

I’ve been using (… diplomatically selected word) Yellow Pencil for about 6 months. The functionality of the program is sufficient (hence the 1 star), but upgrading it is a nightmare.

Typically, updating a plugin requires you to go to your ‘plugin’ page on WP, and press the “update” link where needed. That’s hardly the case w/ Yellow Pencil. Here’s how it goes:

1) You will get a notice on the header of your backend, rather than notice like other plugins. WP website management software won’t pick it up.

2) The header claims you can update it by clicking on a link in the notice. It doesn’t work. The plugin programmers have acknowledged it doesn’t work, but they leave it there anyway.

3) Obtaining the actual file you need to manually update the plugin is a painful search through various organizations that have separate plugins they administer. (I’ll save you the frustrating time, and tell you to look for Code Canyon.)

4) Finding where to actually ‘download’ the updated file on the website is not easy. The lengthy page with many links focuses on everything else. I recommend doing a word search for ‘download’.

5) Before you can update the plugin, you must deactivate and remove the old one. (A further challenge and departure from the concept of ‘update’.)

6) That’s when you’ll realize that the .zip update file isn’t what WP is looking for. There’s another .zip file inside that you must extract somewhere and save. There used to be two versions of the update file; one of which was a direct update file for WP,… but that doesn’t seem to be available anymore.

7) If you’re still able to get through all the above, keep in mind that the updates have come within days of each other. So your inclined to wait a week or two and put up with the annoying notice at the top of your website, and hope it’s not a security fix.

Attempts to work this out with support have failed, and things have gotten even worse! (eg. #6 above)
Please, let’s all communicate our concern and perhaps they’ll listen.