[documentation] Babies, Spoons, Food and Funny Faces

[themacgeek]

Just to be clear, I have not lost vision for this and I am currently  
working on outlining the verbage and structure.  I hope to have an  
example to post after the weekend.

themacgeek

On Jan 7, 2006, at 2:30 PM, Dries Buytaert wrote:

>> Ditto. Thanks to Themacgeek for expressing interest in this and  
>> you are so right, Gunnar. Good training materials would be a big  
>> plus. The problem, though, is that there is a limit to what one  
>> can accomplish with generalized training videos (and other  
>> documentation as well). Drupal has so many possiblities for  
>> configuring and setting up a site that as one moves past the base  
>> installation and few basic settings, the documentation/training  
>> system would grow exponentially in size/quantity.
>
> While that is true, there are many aspects that 90% of the users  
> need or want to do regardless of their site's profile or purpose.   
> Examples include:
>
> 1. Installing the Drupal database scheme and creating the first  
> user account.
> 2. Setting up an about page.
> 3. Setting up a contact page.
> 4. Creating a navigation menu/structure.
> 5. Adding one or more roles and configuring their permissions (eg.  
> allowing some users to create content, allowing some users to  
> access content).
> 6. Setting a mission statement and slogan.
> 7. Installing a new or different theme.
> 8. Setting a block in the side bar.
> 9. Figuring out the difference between 'story' and 'page' (and  
> grokking the node system).
> 10. Configuring cron.
>
> All of these steps (and more) could be documented using short  
> training videos.
>
> Earlier this week I was approached by a friend.  He spent an  
> afternoon installing Drupal and creating some test nodes.  You'd be  
> surprised to learn how many basic questions he still had despite  
> the fact he is a technical person.  I spent approximately 2 hours  
> explaining him some of the above.  It didn't really matter what  
> kind of site/profile he is targeting.  Currently, it takes people a  
> day or two to getthe basics under the belt.
>
> He figured out some of the stuff mentioned above, but he didn't  
> feel confident about it.  He kept asking: "Was that the correct way  
> to do it?  Did I do that right?".  That's a fairly important  
> observation, no?  Having videos or screenshots could have given him  
> more confidence.  If it doesn't feel right, you won't get excited  
> about it either.  Confidence is a pretty important ingredient.
>
> --
> Dries Buytaert  ::  http://www.buytaert.net/
>
> --
> Pending work: http://drupal.org/project/issues/documentation/
> List archives: http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/documentation/