Request for comment on video tutorials

[GarryP]

There have been some requests for the creation of Scribus video tutorials recently so I was wondering what sort of video tutorials people would like to see.

More specifically:

A. What length of tutorial do you prefer to watch? For instance, do you like "bite-sized" five-minute videos that you can dip into when you get a bit of spare time, or is 15 minutes a better run time? Or do you prefer a half-hour or longer to really get your teeth into a subject?

B. How would you prefer to learn about Scribus? For instance, would it be best if each tool or function was given its own video, or would it be better to see different tools being used together?

C. What would be good subjects for a video tutorial? For instance, is page layout something that you want to learn more about, or would you prefer to know more about fonts and typography? Or would you like to learn about creating graphics, or do you want to know how to create a certain type of document?

D. What sort of presentation style do you prefer? For instance, do you like a lot of spoken explanation or do you prefer on-screen annotations? Do you like to get information "around" the subject or do you prefer the presenter to stick fairly rigidly to what they're doing?

E. How do you like to follow video tutorials? For instance, do you like to watch long sections and then try and repeat the instructions yourself? Or do you prefer to flick back and forth repeating each stage as it comes to you?

Obviously, some of the above choices will be mutually exclusive. For example, a five-minute video on typography isn't really going to tell you much. On the other hand, an hour-long video showing every tiny aspect of the Node Editor will probably get boring very quickly.

There are already quite a lot of Scribus video tutorials out there. Some are good but some are quite a bit out-of-date and therefore are telling people how to do things the wrong/old way. Which do think are best? Which don't work for you?

With all of the above in mind, what sort of Scribus video tutorials would you like to see?

DISCLAIMER: By asking the question I'm not saying that anything will be created. Creating a good video tutorial is a time-consuming process and the Scribus community isn't exactly overflowing with spare videographers. All I'm doing is trying to find out what sort of things people would want if such things could be created.

If you could give some ideas of the sort of things you'd like to see then it might be possible in the future that someone could make a start on getting something together. Perhaps.

Here are some examples that might give you some ideas:

* A 15-minute beginners guide to using the "Properties / Text" panel functions.
* A series of five-minute guides to drawing various simple shapes.
* A short guide showing how to organise your projects and resources.

These are just basic examples, you'll probably have much better ideas. So why not tell everyone about them?

[Kunda]

Garry,
I really dig your meticulousness here.

I like different types of tutorials. The ones that impress me are the succinct ones that are simple animated gifs
The inkscape folks have a great example:
https://inkscapetutorials.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/dragging-guides1.gif?w=676

I like these because they can be shared over social media and they don't require people to click to

A) re Length: I like 4-5 min tuts are preferred
B) re: individual or various tools together (No preference) I think it would be useful to highlight the strength of the tool. Then perhaps people can get fancy with how they use it in conjunction with other tools.
C) re: topics: From Tips and tricks (little quick animated gifs on how to do useful repetitive stuff faster and efficiently like 'Insert page numbers') to how to longer ones like using Preflight Verifier. Or preparing scribus projects for professional printers. Also how to appeal to folks that are coming from InDesign, like loading InDesign Keysets etc...
D) I like a presenter to speak if the presentation requires it (if not then annotations are great or even animated gifs with annotations). I don't like when the presenter triest to fill in the silent moments with words that are not relevant because there is a gap. Also I like when the silent moments are edited out.
E) I like to repeat each step as it comes, in sequence.

Edit: Here are some resources the Inkscape folks used to prepare their tutorials: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/CreatingScreencasts

[GarryP]

Thanks Kunda.

I won't comment on your preferences and suggestions as I'd like to get as many opinions as possible. If I gave any comment - for or against - it might influence other people's posts and I'd like to know what people really want.

The more people that give their opinion, the more it will look like people want something to happen and - hopefully - the more likely it will be that someone does something about this. (On the other hand, if not many people bother to comment then it will look like there's not much interest. And if there's not much interest then why would anyone bother to make the videos?)

Hopefully this topic will raise a lot of good suggestions which can then be "rolled up" into a real wish-list.

And thanks for sharing the link to the resources, they look very useful - especially LICEcap.

[a.l.e]

personally, i love the way the inkscape guys are doing:

http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.91



as soon as i've found out how to do it (in a proficient way), i'd like to start collecting such visual snippets...
(well, what i would need is a worfkflow: record -> trim -> crop -> gif... in linux. without GNOME, KDE or any huge set of libraries)

ciao
a.l.e

[GarryP]

Thanks for sharing that link a.l.e.

I didn't realise that Mediwiki sites could use animated GIFs. That sort of thing could spice up the written tutorials quite a bit.

I'm off to experiment...

P.S. I think your idea about collecting visual snippets is a very good idea. Anything that would reduce the work taken to create the documentation would be of great help.

[a.l.e]

hi

i've created a repository for collecting short animated gifs that can be used in tutorials and can be linked  to when giving support:

https://github.com/aoloe/scribus-manual-screencast-gif/

i'm wondering if CC0 would be better than CC-BY-SA...

ciao
a.l.e

[Zyphon]

Hi Gary,

Video tutorials are always great. I personally would like to learn layout and typography in a little more detail. For example how to design a poster of 3 fold brochure. There are a couple of videos on  YouTube but they are either basic or using very old versions of Scribus. It would be nice to see these done with the more up to date versions.

If making video tutorials though (and again I can only speak of personal preference) I detest those on YouTube with no voice-over used and by that I mean the one's that just annotate. The reason for me is it is far easier to follow when you can hear instructions as you go along. If you have annotations you have to pause the video carry out the task and then resume and so on. I feel in this day and age a microphone should be used.

I also like the  animated GIFs that the Inkscape team use in their WIKI this is useful for giving a graphical representation on how the article may look.

Just my two pennies worth, great post by the way.

[a.l.e]

hi zyphon

for a tutorial on a 3 fold brochure, here you have a short tutorial (which is also an introduction to scribus)

http://en.flossmanuals.net/scribus-2/hands-on/

ciao
a.l.e

[GarryP]

Hi Michael.

Thanks for adding your comments. As with Kunda's post earlier, I can't give an opinion either way - there are no right or wrong answers, just personal preferences - but you make some good points, especially about some of the existing videos being out-of-date.

I'll add what you've said to my list and we'll see what other replies I get.

[Zyphon]

@ a.l.e

Thanks for the really useful link I had forgotten about this website I shall follow the tutorial for the 3 fold brochure. Very much appreciated.

@GaryP

Thanks Gary and best of luck with whatever you decide. I love the tutorials on the Scribus Wiki and I know you have contributed quite a lot and I am sure the Scribus community is as grateful as I am.


Kind regards,

Michael

[a.l.e]

i have uploaded my two first gif screenscasts:

https://github.com/aoloe/scribus-manual-screencast-gif/tree/master/content




still lot to learn...
... most of all, i have to find images that render well in gifs...

[Zyphon]

That's a great start a.l.e very impressive. What software did you use for capturing the gif?

[a.l.e]

i'm on linux without a desktop environment... so i have not muc of a h choice...

i've found a script that is using byzanz and xrectsel and adapted it slightly for my use (biggest enhance: removing the beep that does not work on my computer :-)

https://github.com/aoloe/bin_etc/blob/master/byzanz-record-selection.sh

on top of it, there is also (in its original state):
https://github.com/aoloe/bin_etc/blob/master/byzanz-record-window.sh

depending on your distribution you will have to compile xrectsel by yourself.. but it's very straightforward to compile! :-)

[Zyphon]

Thanks for the info.

[Kunda]

Hey GarryP,
Check out https://gist.github.com/dergachev/4627207 for OSX.