[off topic] We need guides on how to make tutorials etc

[Mat]

It would be good if we (the community) had some guidelines for how to easily make TW tutorials etc. I'm primarily thinking of how to easily make and publish videos.

I.e recommended software, needed equipment, workflow, how and where to publish stuff, tips and tricks, etc.

IMO this could be part of the docs on tiddlywiki.com, perhaps in, or 'parallel' to, the Helping TiddlyWiki tiddler. Even if this is not about TW per se, it would for sure be valuable for the TW project.

Perhaps also where/how to most easily publish a demo TW. We do have e.g Sharing a TW on DropBox, and Sharing your Tiddlers but they're not really from the point of making instructions about TW.

<:-)

[@TiddlyTweeter]

Mat

I agree.

Part of the problem is lack of a BRIDGE between obvious concern here that we are not really documenting what we do well--EVEN THOUGH, in many ways the posts in this group are often a clear basis for more permanent documentation. With a bit of love & a bit of tech many ways to docs could come IMO.

Today, for instance, RichardWS just posted a link to a good tutorial he wrote on installing TiddlyServer. IMO stuff like that needs pinning--OR, getting quickly linked to from tiddlywiki.com.

The relentless flow of GG definitely needs offsetting by some kind of Permanent Assurance. In video. In text. And FINDABLE quickly. More upfront.

Best wishes
Josiah

[RichardWilliamSmith]

Hi Mat - this is a good idea. I should make a tutorial about how to make tutorials. Then I could make a tutorial about how to make tutorials about making tutorials. Than I could....

It's late.

Have you tried Neocities for hosting? Super easy, drag and drop uploading, https, no sign-up (you can pay $5/month if you want to).

Vimeo is good for video hosting. I potter about with it - I have to overcome my hatred of my own voice.

The gifs in my latest tutorial are hosted on giphy and I use their desktop tool, giphy capture, to grab them. Unless they take longer than 30 seconds to create. Then I have to grab a video and edit it down, in which case, perversely, they have to then be under 15 seconds.

Hosting images is bizarrely hard because the sites are all either 'free'- ie; they just want to mine your data and/or show you adverts and aren't very keen on hosting images so that you can 'hotlink' them on your own website. Or they're 'not free', by which I mean 'surprisingly expensive' ($45/month upwards) because (who knew) the internet isn't actually made out of love. It's made out of metal and electricity and that stuff's not free. In a way, Neocities at $5 a month is actually a good deal (hotlinking actually seems to without paying, contrary to what it says in the terms, but I guess they'd want their $5 if you started to get 10,000 hits a day)

Recording screen casts on a mac is really easy - you can just use quicktime and 'new screen recording' but if you're on windows, you probably have to download some random shareware from tucows :p (showing my age)

As far as tips and tricks for making instructionals, I haven't quite got there myself yet but I think the best way to do it is a three step process.

1. 'do it', don't worry about your performance at all - talk yourself through what you're doing

2. in a video editor, chop out everything that's not //visually// necessary

3. re-record the voice track - you can do this bit as many times as you need to and cut bits in

Maybe you don't need to cheat this way but for me it's just too hard to talk sensibly at the same time as doing the actual thing without making mistakes. Maybe I will get better with practice.

It would be really great if you were to make some tutorials. You could teach us all a lot about css (especially me, I'm terrible at it - have you seen css grid? I think it may be my saviour)

I'd love to see what other suggestions people have.

Regards,

Richard

[@TiddlyTweeter]

Ciao RichardWS & Mat

I don't want to throw a wobbly because your attention to Mat's detail, real question, is super.

But great tutorials are no use unless they can be FOUND long-term. 

We should be cautious in my opinion in promoting work on tutorials unless there is a congruent method to get them Permanently Assured. Otherwise its sweat that may go nowhere.

Your TiddlyServer instructions are great. As was your very detailed tutorial about publishing sites.  So useful.

A shame if they just disappeared into the Google Swamp.

Now I'll shut up.

Best wishes Josiah.

[PMario]

On Friday, September 22, 2017 at 1:28:25 PM UTC+2, @TiddlyTweeter wrote:

.., in many ways the posts in this group are often a clear basis for more permanent documentation.

That's absolutely right!

 

With a bit of love & a bit of tech many ways to docs could come IMO.

It's true, to post here you need "a bit of <something>" ... BUT ... If you want to make good documentation, you need "a lot of ... time"!

I don't want to say, it shouldn't be done. .. In the contrary!

I just want to make sure that people know, that creating good docs is time consuming. And creating good videos is even more challenging but ... It's worth it!

 

------

I did create some videos about how to use github to contribute to TW docs.
They are not the best, but I hope they are OK ... http://tiddlywiki.com/#Improving%20TiddlyWiki%20Documentation

If you visit them, you'll find out, several things:

- The sound quality isn't the best. ... because of the cheep wireless headset that I used. ..
- The viedo isn't edited. ... IMO Because editing is much more time consuming than recording it several times and just use the version that works.
- They are a bit outdated, because github has changed the UI quite a bit. ... So "re-recording" them would be necessary. ... Is it worth it?


The advantage of this approach is:

- You need to keep your videos as short as possible, but still say everything that's important. ..
- On average I need to record them 3 times. But the 3rd version most of the time is much better than the 1st one. 


On Windows I'm using:

Open Broadcaster Software: https://obsproject.com/

USB wired Mic ... because it has less noise as you can listen here.
A fixed Mic stand ... So it can be better positioned
A pop filter ... to block breathing sounds

I did search for the cheapest stuff I could find, which still looks OK. .. It turns out to be much better than my old headset setting. .

just my 2 cents

have fun!
mario

[PMario]

On Friday, September 22, 2017 at 2:31:31 PM UTC+2, RichardWilliamSmith wrote:

Hi Mat - this is a good idea. I should make a tutorial about how to make tutorials. Then I could make a tutorial about how to make tutorials about making tutorials. Than I could....

:)

 

Vimeo is good for video hosting. I potter about with it - I have to overcome my hatred of my own voice.

I did try Vimeo some time ago. They didn't let my upload 1080p content with the free tier and the UX was terrible. So I went back to youtube.

 

-m

[@TiddlyTweeter]

Ciao PMario

PMario wrote:

 creating good videos is even more challenging but ... It's worth it!

Footnote ...

FYI I'm a film-maker. I steer away from making online cheap videos because to make anything decent is a LOT of work. Its much more work than writing well.

IMO the use of ANIMATED GIF's embedded in text is one of the best combinations for making instructional materials. It forces the writer to hone intent.

j, X

[@TiddlyTweeter]

PMario wrote:

I did try Vimeo some time ago. They didn't let my upload 1080p content with the free tier and the UX was terrible. So I went back to youtube.

Footnote.

Vimeo is good if you are an adept film-maker. Its orientated towards the higher end of the semi-professional market and some professionals--from whom it wants to make money. A LOT of how it works is completely obscure unless you hang-out there a lot.

Josiah, x

[Lost Admin]

On Friday, September 22, 2017 at 8:31:31 AM UTC-4, RichardWilliamSmith wrote:

... - I have to overcome my hatred of my own voice. ...

Adjust the pitch of your audio track track down 1% to 3% before listening to yourself. Nobody likes the sound of their own voice when recorded because your head acts as a natural base booster for your own talking. So you are used to hearing more base from yourself than other people hear.

 

... As far as tips and tricks for making instructional [video]s ...

Please include written instructions with lots of screenshots so that people following the tutorial don't have to constantly rewind/fast forward to figure out what they are supposed to be doing. A link to a tiddlywiki on how to do a specific think with tiddlywiki works great.

 

[Sylvain Naudin]

Hello,

I still have to find time, and it is for our French audience community, I've done this Vimeo channel :

https://vimeo.com/channels/tiddlywikifr

(it's not just a matter about time, but my previous PC is pretty dead, and change my process).

Under Gnu/Linux I love SSR (Simple Screen Recorder). I've test many usual screecast program and it's my best experience. Then use mix with Inkscape for text and OpenShot. (but with ma dead PC, I had also some trouble with version 2.0 of OpenShot..).

Years ago, I've learn a lot with microsode Inkscape channel (screencasters.heathenx.org) and it's a complementary training material to wiki text content.

Regard,
Sylvain

[@TiddlyTweeter]

Sylvain

I suggest you update the notes on Vimeo that read ...

"Découvrez la principale nouvelle fonctionnalité de la prochaine version de TiddlyWiki, v5.1.12"

If they are still relevant to the latest version I would not mention the specific version. The issue is if you leave it as .12 then it starts looking out of date, which it isn't.

Best wishes
Josiah

[ste...@gmail.com]

Going a bit off-topic (in an already "off-topic" thread...), but are there any TiddlyWiki tutorials built with TW itself? In my imagination, each tiddler might contain some instructions and examples, and users would then be invited to solve tasks themselves in a "child tiddler" or the like. 

A bit similar to the "vimtutor" for vim (a popular Linux text editor), where people can try out the commands in the editor itself. 

Cheers,

Stef

[Jed Carty]

I made the documentation for thing I make in tiddlywiki.

The wizard wizard uses itself for documentation. https://ooktech.com/TiddlyWiki/WizardWizard/

[Ste Wilson]

I always kept meaning to suggest you called it wizzard^2....

[Riz]

But great tutorials are no use unless they can be FOUND long-term. 

We should be cautious in my opinion in promoting work on tutorials unless there is a congruent method to get them Permanently Assured. Otherwise its sweat that may go nowhere.

Someplacce like https://www.reddit.com/r/TiddlyWiki5/wiki/tutorials ?

[Sylvain Naudin]

Hi Josiah,

It's not a channel description but a specific video on new toolbar in 5.1.12. So no I won't change history fact ;)

Cheers,
Sylvain