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. 

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!.

[bossgard]

Laurie:

Thank you for relating your experience with the tutorials for everyone to read. It reminds me of when I first started work with Genie and George. My experience with computers, Genie and Horticulture had been very limited. I received my copy of  Pro Ver. 5 on Nov. 20th of last year. In a year?s time I think I have accomplished considerably, but it was not without pain. I emailed support quite a few times, and as George will vouch for, I threatened to throw him and my computer out the window of my second story office. Maybe myself, too. (I was kidding, of course.)

The pain eased when:
1.   ?George had me download (in part) www.ideasgenie.com/lessons/leson2-10/leson 2-10 html. (which is not operating now).
2.   ?I bought myself  a darn? good plant reference book for this area, and entered my plant inventory.
3.   ?Did some photo links to plants (actually scanned catalog pictures).
4.   ?And when I worked with George with the US version of GA048, (which will be finalized soon, and done in a UK version) and saw the photo I had linked with a plant earlier appear in full color I was creating a label for, it blew my mind.

After that step, I saw it all fall together, and I thought what a miracle George has created here, as far as I know he has created the best Gardening Software there is out there. He hasn?t left anything out, and I?m sure if we discover something, he?ll fix it.  It has been worth all the pain, and then some!! It?s that hump you have to get through.

I have purchased OmniPage 16 OCR software and it looks like a beaut! Imagine this:
You have a packet of flower seed that you are going to propagate. On the front of the packet is a full color picture, back full of instructions. I can scan the seed packet (empty of  course) front and back, open the scan in M/S Word, edit it if I want to, and then enter into the proper plant text data area in Genie. No more hours entering that info by keyboard strokes!

And George made it all possible! And George, it has and continues to be a pleasure working with you!

[ideasguy]

Gosh  and begorrah 

The cheques in the post for writing all that stuff, Toby 
 
Seriously, that makes very nice reading to cheer me up at the end of a wet day in Ireland!
It was an absolute pleasure working with you, of course. I'm very grateful for all the experimental (with the emphasis on mental  ) work you did with those labels on the GA048 project, Toby.

Theres an awful lot of satisfaction at this end you know - it makes my day when an email comes back with glad tidings, and it REALLY makes my day when we (you, me and all users) manage to solve a problem and when we move the software further along the way.
I think we are getting there with making IG something special, and you've certainly played your part!

I get to learn a lot in the process as well!!  Have you got the OmniPage 16 OCR software working?
Interesting stuff!

[bossgard]

George:
I was wondering when I was gonna get paid!

The OmniPage 16 software working?
No,  I'm reading the manual like I'm supposed to. Lots of big words . . . . I've never heard of before.

I have it installed (downloaded), and it's  scanner set-up wizard has set up my (fanny) scanner, will let you know if it all comes together and gets along with Genie.

- Toby

[NightHawk]

Er, George - nudge, nudge, hint, hint.  When is my cheque going to arrive then? 

I'm feeling left out now - I might have to put the price up for that. 

Toby, there's no holding you back my friend.  You make a decision and go for it. 

Good luck with reading that manual, one of the least favourite of my experiences.  That is, unless the manual is written by people who 'really' know how to write, in a way you can understand and follow more easily.

I like your idea of scanning those seed packets into Genie - what a great idea. 

There is a gold star awaiting you once you've got to grips with your scanner.  You will then forever more be regarded as the Scanner Guru. 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Hey Toby. Did you get that scanner working? Its a long time since Laurie issued a Gold Star, and one awaits you

[bossgard]

George:

Did I get Nuance Omni-Page 16 installed on my computer? NO, not exactly! But I do have Nuance?s Paper Port 12 installed, which is part of Nuance?s family of software.

Several of the local newspapers feature articles written by local gardeners. Another source of articles comes from Gardening Magazines that I subscribe to. As long as it is US letter size (8.5?x11?) I can scan. Some of the newspaper articles I have to cut apart with scissors but as long as the copy will fit in my scanner I can use them.

The actual scanning procedure goes like this:
Turn on the scanner, and arrange the copy on the glass and close scan cover.
Open Paperport 12, and click on the button to run scan.
When the scan is complete, it shows in a thumbnail fashion.
Open Word.
Click on the thumbnail.
Click on Word at the bottom of the screen, and the scan is moved to Word where I can view it.
Use Edit/Copy, and copy the parts of the Word scanned copy that you want to enter into IG Pro.

Open IG Pro to GA100S36 ?Working with a Plant Profile? with the proper plant selected. Click on Edit Full Screen; place your cursor in the area where you want the new information to appear.
Click Edit/Paste and the copy appears and is pasted into GA100S36. It is now included as part of that plant profile.

At this point you can edit the copy, rearrange it, or anything else you might want to do with it.
Make sure to Save Changes, and you now have the original scanned copy placed into the proper plant profile as a permanent addition.

It works great. Saves a considerable amount of keystrokes.

I think I have mentioned all the steps for the procedure, but if somebody catches something incorrect or left out, let me know so we can make the correction.

- Toby

[ideasguy]

RE:

Open Word.
Click on the thumbnail.
Click on Word at the bottom of the screen, and the scan is moved to Word where I can view it.

When the scan is moved into Word, is the scan converted into ordinary text?

RE:

Use Edit/Copy, and copy the parts of the Word scanned copy that you want to enter into IG Pro

and you are able to use normal copy and paste to insert the text into the Data for this Plant/Cultivar field in IG Pro?

[bossgard]

George:

Yes, to both questions.

- Toby

[ideasguy]

Now that is very impressive Toby. That software has OCR capabilities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition

I visited the Nuance website and read through the product description (could only find the latest version of your software) - PaperPort Professional 14:
http://www.nuance.co.uk/for-business/by-product/paperport/professional/index.htm
Heres one of their bullet points:

Convert paper into text
Turn your scanned document images into editable text for popular word processing or spreadsheet software with a simple drag-and-drop.

In Paper Port 12 - that is a nifty item of software you have there Toby.
I think you deserve a Gold Star

[NightHawk]

In Paper Port 12 - that is a nifty item of software you have there Toby.
I think you deserve a Gold Star

I agree.  Excellent contribution there Toby.

Here is your well-earned Gold Star.



Laurie.

[bossgard]

George:

I have passed on purchasing Paperport 14 Pro at this time, as long as version 12 is doing its job.
It costs the same price as if you were buying a 'new' program.
As I understand the Pro 14 gets ino the area of 'apps' (applications), which I am not into at all, and really know nothing about.
As I understand the 'apps' are basically aimed at those computer users that are into the socializing thing. Teen-agers, etc.
If anybody wants to enlighten me, would be happy to hear about that phase of world-wide communicating.
George, is that an area that might efffect the users of IG Pro, the Genie gardening program?
Possibly in future updates?

Laurie and George, thanks for the new Gold Star. I shall proundly 'wear' it!

- Toby

[NightHawk]

Time for another topic revival 

George is constantly updating his software and also the Tutorials for any new features being added.

We're also getting new members joining us, so it will be nice to get their feedback as well as from our regular members.

So, now is the time to have your say.  Is George getting the balance right for you; are the Tutorials easy to follow; do you have any suggestions for amending or adding to them?

George welcomes feedback, so I'll once again say that George will not regard your comments as criticism, so don't be shy about giving your views.

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Thanks for reviving this topic Laurie.
In Bank Genie 4 and Bank Genie Pro Ive gone away from tutorials and provided an integrated on-line User Guide.
http://www.bankgenie.net/UserGuide/
Its a massive undertaking, but very effective and hopefully will be easier and quicker to use.
Most screens in Bank Genie have a link to the exact web page on the User Guide, delivering specific help. Personally, I hate systems with links to help where you are dropped in the middle of an ocean, and this targeted and specific help is my solution.

Its fine for Bank Genie, but there is so much more you can do with Ideas Genie that tutorials of some sort are necessary. On the Ideas Genie on the Web support website Ive provided demos. Since they have screenshots, it may be easier. I would very much value any feedback.
http://www.ideasgenie.com/

Ive also provided an abundance of demos with screenshots on the Ideas Genie website:
http://www.ideasgenie.co.uk/screen_shots.html