On Tue, 25 Oct 2011, Rob Oakes wrote:
To: [email protected]
From: Rob Oakes <[email protected]>
Subject: Beginner Tutorials
Dear Users,
Sorry that I've been incommunicado for the past few months. I've been
extraordinarily busy getting married, trying to wrap up a never-ending book
project, and digging myself out of enormous holes at work. However, I wanted to
raise something I saw on the list last week (I think that it was last week.)
Are there any good beginner video tutorials that cover LyX? I followed most of
the discussion, but wasn't sure if a consensus emerged. Nor was it really clear
if this was a resource that we should invest time in creating.
I know that there are several very good guides. Liviu created one which I
skimmed, and we have the official documentation (which is excellent); and these
are fantastic for users who have already decided to use the program.
However, I'm wondering if it might be worthwhile to also create a series of
short videos that might also be used for promotion, training, etc. This series
could certainly be aimed at helping current users, but I'm also thinking that
beginner videos which show how LyX works might be good for brand new users who
need a reason to try it out. Something perhaps along the lines of what Apple
has done with their iWork Suite [1]
For the realm of software, while text is great, video is much better. It may
even be best for demonstrating software how-to. Because I've needed extra money
to pay for the trappings that accompany weddings, I've started teaching a few
technology courses. (Playing with tech is something I enjoy and I found people
who will indulge me.) Over the past six months or so, I've found that video
tutorials are a great way to demonstrate tech and discuss tech ideas.
(Mostly because they require you to script each step of a demonstration and if
something refuses to work, you can expand the video to show why in a structured
manner. This is much less aggravating than having things break real time.)
Might it be worthwhile to produce video tutorials for the current versions of
LyX? If so, what topics might we want to cover? I've got several tutorials that
I'm working on for the never-ending book project. They will cover:
1.) Installation and Setup
2.) The UI and Productively (LyX-Codes, Shortcuts, Styles)
3.) Bibliographies and Automatically Generated Lists
4.) Using Sweave and Other Advanced Features
5.) Going from Outline to Draft (Outline Tools)
Are there any other topic that might be good to include? Are there any special
features which would merit their own videos? Is there any budding videographer
who might be willing to help produce such videos (see legal note below)? I'm
thinking about producing something similar to these [2]. Having help would be
marvelous.
Any interest?
Hi Rob. This might be the thread I started some time ago?
Reason being, I tried to use LyX several times, but gave up
when I found that the 'Return' key was 'not doing its thing' ;)
What I had in mind was an introduction into using LyX for
complete newbies, to explain how simple it is to generate a
DVI, PDF or PS doscumnet from the included help files,
supplied as .lyx source files.
A screencast would be fine, using something like
record-my-desktop on Linux, or CamStudio on Windows.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RecordMyDesktop
http://camstudio.org/
Here is a link to some video tutorials about using CamStudio
on Windows: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A57A11C0D77BBF9B
I find screencast tutorials get ALOT of information across
to the end user - in a very short amount of time. It is like
having somebody along side you, teaching the program on a
one-to-one basis.
For some examples screencasting tutorials, please take a
look at this site: http://showmedo.com/
Kind Regards,
Keith Roberts
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