Ideas Genie Pro > Tutorials
Tutorials Feedback
NightHawk:
George has done extensive improvements to the Genie software up to the present time, and Tutorials are an important function to get you through any sticky or difficult areas you may encounter, whilst learning to use the programs.
What we would like here is for feedback from members using FG and IG.
(1) Are you using the Tutorials? If so, have they got all the help features that you were expecting and are they easy to follow.
(2) Are you having difficulty using the Tutorials? If so, what difficulties have you experienced, and what changes would you suggest.
(3) Are there any other areas of the programs where you feel a Tutorial needs adding to or a different explanation.
All of this information is important for both the current users, and any new users, to learn the fuctionality as best as possible.
George will of course help out personally whenever possible, but the proper use of the Tutorials will greatly reduce his workload.
So please let us know in this thread your experiences of using them.
Laurie.
bossgard:
Kathy and Laurie: Tutorials are what I do when I have rainy days and rainy nights.
When I first started out with IG, I pulled together a tutorial index in M/S Excel. The sort fields I have in it are Tutorial Number, Program, Tutorial Title, Tutorial Ref. #, Lesson Title and the last one is titled Search, where I pulled together the keywords as to how the Tutorial will help me.
Taking those headings would give you this:
59/GA004/Work w/ plants and garden areas/GA004-5/Who has that plant/Plant, who has/?
It has been of tremendous use for me, if I have a problem, I go to Search, sort it alpha, and find the exact tutorial that will help me. I told George about it at the time and he seemed to be real interested in it. I think the use of tutorials would increase with that aid. When I received Ver. 5 there were new tutorials, so I added them.
Also the Help buttons have been of, yes, great help
-Toby
bossgard:
Thought this might be appropriate to this Topic. In a recent issue of the Seattle Times (Seattle, WA ? US) there was a feature story about a computer forensics researcher who studies bogus e-mail messages, this was the caption under his photo:
?Frequently people have called me a computer guru,? says Gary Warner, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. ?And I say guru is an Indian word that means ?he who reads the manual.??
NightHawk:
Guru indeed Toby... which leads me back to George. ;)
When I first tried out these Tutorials, I have to admit it threw me a little at first. In fact I had to contact George to see if they were not performing correctly.
I'll explain... I was just following a randomTutorial as a 'test', which is what George has asked us all to do, to see how we got on with them.
As I attempted to follow the instructions for the first step I minimised the tutorial window. I lost cursor control. Couldn't do anything. So I thought, how can I follow along with these instructions step-by-step if I can't interact.
I contacted George, who explained that the tutorial box for each step had to be closed. Then when that particular step had been completed, I had to press the Tutorial button again to continue to the next one.
Duh!! I hadn't read his instructions for using the tutorial correctly. :-[ I have been used to following tutorials for other things in the past by minimising the tutorial window, doing the procedure, then maximising the tutorial window again and carrying on.
I had assumed George had programmed his tutorials the same way. No, he hadn't. So, the key thing here is to read everything carefully first. Once I'd got the principle involved, the tutorial worked great... as it was supposed to.
George hadn't expected anyone doing this, so as a result of my feedback, he is going to disable the 'minimise' button of the tutorial screens so this can't happen again. 8)
This really is what prompted the start of this thread. George thought, how many other people have run into difficulties such as I had, but had not wanted to say anything at the risk of upsetting him?
Well, the point is if you think you have discovered an 'anomaly' and think it is your fault because you're not using the program correctly, so decide to say nothing, then if it really is a problem it will go undetected for other people to have deal with it.
George has asked us for feedback. So by reporting things to him, we are doing what he asked us to do. By virtue of this he is not going to take offence. Most of the time it is going to be a result of user error, sometimes not, but George would prefer this than to not have any feedback at all.
I do a lot of 'beta' testing for George when new features are added, and give him the appropriate feedback. He trusts my judgement through my experience of using computers for a long time. But he also wants other members/program users to comment as well.
For various reasons, some people are just not able to spend time doing this, and will only report something if a specific problem arises.
Most of what George asks us to do is fairly straightforward, and doesn't involve a lot of personal time.
So, please do what you can to test all the features of the programs you are using.
If anything seems to be not working as expected, post your concerns here if it is to do with Tutorials, but post other concerns in the appropriate section of the Forum for the particular piece of software you're using. Just scroll through the list of Forum Boards for the one you want.
Laurie.
ideasguy:
Well said, Laurie!
Thank you so much for discussing this.
I spent many hours doing those tutorials, and writing help.
The tutorial system is my own design. I haven't seen anything on other software quite like it.
I don't know if you know this or not, but developers like to develop, and hate doing documentation. I'm no exception!!
But, Ive developed both the tutorial system, and the Help system to make it a little more like fun to do documentation.
I came up with a method (the systems you see) where I can write the documentation "in the flow" of using the system to achieve an objective.
I have a switch (its in in the preferences, but disabled to users) which controls buttons on that that little GAT screen.
These are invisible to the user. They allow me to write text as I go through an exercise. I click a Save button to save my text, and click an Add button (all within that GAT screen) to add a new step, and its all pretty intelligent in that it fills in the details of what screen I'm on, the step no, etc.
Once Ive gone through all the steps, I then have to proof it - going through all the steps, over and over, tweaking and changing.
Theres also a Change button on the Help screens, again hidden from the user.
With that, I can get to a screen, and add Help where required. e.g. The WPG screen GA032S04 is a good example.
Now,theres been a LOT of screen changes recently, and the Tutorials and Help haven't been updated. I'm pretty certain there are a few that will need updated. I hinted to Laurie that it would be very much appreciated if he had time to proof some of the tutorials (i.e. by simply doing them!)
I'm very grateful that ha has (once again!) risen to the challenge.
Thanks to all the Gurus ;) who take part in this exercise. Believe me, it will be much appreciated, especially to know that someone is actually READING them !! Theres a few little tips thrown in for good measure in some of the tutorials!.
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