Hadn’t thought of this before: seeking out video tutorials for software on youtube.
When reading the manual or online help doesn’t quite bridge the gap between text and clicking things in the right order, we usually turn to another user for help. Now, we don’t even need to phone a friend, just head to youtube.com and seek out the hundreds of computer geeks who have committed their knowledge to the screen.
From advanced tips and tricks to the basics of just about any major software package you can name, there’s someone who has helped humanity out by filming a step-by-step guide to show off their skills or simply to help others avoid hair-pulling frustration when learning new software.
The good thing is that most of the clips are by real users just like me and you, not a slick corporate video that’s a shade too generic to provide the complete answer. Be warned, though, some of the footage is of variable quality and the characters doing the presenting are a very mixed bunch too. Nevertheless, there are some real gems out there.
The best approach is to view the video a couple of times then minimise the page and boot up the problematic software. Resize the windows in order to have the video running side by side and follow the instructions. It may be necessary to pause the video to keep up with the action in the clip.
Here are some links to youtube searches of video tutorials on a range of common and other useful business software packages:
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Contribute
Dreamweaver
Firefox
Joomla
Linux
MS Excel
MS Office
MS Outlook
MS Project
OpenOffice
Outlook Express
PhotoShop
Quickbooks
Safari
Sage Accounts
Skype
Thunderbird
