[FM Discuss] scribn the bazaar (I write about what i want to learn more about)

[dwp]

Hi: In addition to the "what you see and what you do" philosophy of  
writing instruction and software manuals, I also for my own benefit  
attempt to write a set of instructions to solve or learn how to use  
software. When I wrote manuals I always had the feeling that if i  
could understand it later, anybody could:). Engineers and Programmers  
are probably the worst to write user manuals on their own efforts.  
They are too close to the subject and fall victim to "I know it, so  
everyone else should".

Being a MAC user, the subject of "Paths" was foreign to me. When I was  
introduced to LINUX i quickly got lost.

Having an OLPC with a VNC server program, I found that I could go  
through the various paths and view them on a MAC. There i could make  
screen shots and comments (in MS word; Pages probably would have been  
better, but i'm cheap:). This aided me greatly and i can always review  
my "manual", which I print.

I also found that the latest version of QuickTime 10 (SnowLeopard  
only) has a Screen Recording feature. This allows me to actually see  
what I have done and go back and review. This is a good idea when  
installing new software where you have choices of options, definitions  
of screen names, which E-mail address you use, and so forth. Easy to  
forget, and sometimes scribbles on cards are later unclear. Just go  
back through the recording (you can also speed up to 8X) to see what  
you did.

Unless i had a WebPage, I would find it difficult to upload one to  
anybody. I can stop though and get screen shots of something  
significant that happened.

Regards: David