The Zaweba menu and sending feedback from Burn by Zaweba

Alongside the menus for discs and images, Burn by Zaweba has a Zaweba menu, and the Help menu has a way to report a problem or send feedback. They are small parts of the app, but they connect Burn to the other Zaweba apps you have and to the people who make it.

The thinking behind the feedback tools in particular is worth a look, because it puts your privacy first.

The Zaweba menu

The Zaweba menu lists the other Zaweba apps installed on your PC, so you can open one straight from Burn. If you have Play by Zaweba for music, Labels by Zaweba for printing labels or Disk Sort for tidying files, they are a click away.

The same menu links to zaweba.com, and offers ways to share the app, get support and send feedback. You can open it from the keyboard with Alt+Z.

Reporting a problem

When something goes wrong, Help, Report a problem gathers the details that help explain it. When you would rather pass on a suggestion or a comment, Help, Send feedback does the same job for that.

In both cases, Burn shows you the details before anything is sent. You see exactly what will go.

Personal details removed first

Before anything is sent, personal information is removed. That covers user names in file paths, email addresses, IP addresses and machine names.

This matters for a disc program more than most. Problem details often include file paths, and on Windows a path usually contains your user name. Backup jobs involve your own folders, whose names can say a lot about you. Taking those details out by default means a report can explain a problem without saying who you are or what your PC is called.

Because you see the details first, you can also check for yourself. If a folder name you would rather keep private appears somewhere it wasn't caught, you know before you send.

Writing a useful report

A good report is one that someone who wasn't there can follow. Burn removes the personal details, but the description of what happened is yours to write, and a few clear sentences make all the difference.

Say what you were doing, step by step. For example: backing up a set of three folders to DVD, the second disc failed its check.

Say what you expected and what happened instead. A short, plain description is more useful than a long one.

Mention the drive if a burn is involved. Tools, Drive information shows the writer's model and firmware, which helps explain problems that only happen with certain drives.

Connecting apps and people

The Zaweba menu is how Burn connects to the other apps, alongside the direct hand-offs: Play by Zaweba sending a playlist for an audio CD, Disk Sort sending files to burn, and covers going on to Labels by Zaweba. The feedback items in Help are how you connect to Zaweba itself. Burn by Zaweba works offline with no account, and sending a report is always your choice.