Question about doing a tutorial

[Kybeadmaker]

If I wanted to do a tutorial, and I have never done one before, how do I learn how to do one?

[nicholebeth]

Good question - I'd love to hear others' thoughts on this, as well. I have an idea brewing in my mind. Harriet, I think a bead tutorial by you would be wonderful!

[jonibird]

I just did a word document, inserted pictures and saved it as a PDF. It's not fancy but it's okay I think.

[Frit Diva]

Formatting in Word will make your document as simple or as fancy as you want, then you can either print to a PDF file, or use a free pdf converter like 995Pdf. If you wanted your tutorial to be readable on an e-reader, you would have more decisions to make, but almost all the tutorials I have seen are standard pdf files. Good luck!

Feel free to PM me if you have more specific questions that aren't answered in this thread!


Jo

[Kybeadmaker]

Thanks Nicole...and thanks for all the tips everyone :)

[patienthand]

same thing..I did mine in word and then converted it to a pdf.. BTW I have a nook color and all the pdfs I have bought go on my nook just fine

[glassactcc]

I have a Mac so I used Pages. Such a nice program and so easy to use. If you are using a Mac with pages, you have to go to "print" to convert it into a PDF. Took me awhile to figure that one out.

[Diane Woodall]

Hi Harriett, Yes, use Word to create your document. I like to set up tables and size my photos to fit into the tables, allowing for some cell padding. When the tutorial is done, simply turn the table borders white so that they disappear and that's all there is to it.

When I do tutorials for the magazine, I use tables for all of them, but I'm also trying to compress a tutorial into just a few pages. If you have the room to spread out a bit, you can just place our photos where you want them on the page and put a text box next to them.

For creating PDFs, I use PDFill. It isn't expensive, and the compression rate is excellent while maintaining the quality of the document. I use PDFill and the compression rate is more than 50%.

The good news about tutorials is that lampworkers realize the authors are not professional writers, photographers or editors and most people are very forgiving, as long as the photos and instructions are clear. I do, however, recommend that you get a good copy editor to look over your tutorial before you publish it. There are a lot of tutorials that are good, but could be better if they were reviewed by a copy editor first.

I have two good copy editors I can recommend if you send me a PM.

Good luck! Put me on the list of people who can't wait to buy your tutorial. :love::love:

[obsessionwoman]

oooh, what is your tut going to be?...

[Kybeadmaker]

Hi Obsession,
First I want to thank everyone for all the good advice. If I do tut it would be about watercolor florals. Right now my son, his wife and three young children are moving to Louisville, so I can't think about anything until they are settled. I just wondered what it would entail to do a tutorial, and if they would sell. Again, thanks so much for all the input.
Harriet

[PennyLane]

I'd be very interested in a tut. on your watercolor florals. I love it when you post pics of them.

[ewdb]

me too! i would love to learn how to do your florals!

[Holaday]

Timely discussion. I'd like to create tutorials starting with the word doc pages I create for metal working classes I teach (MANY unique techniques). When I added photos and converted to PDF, the files were huge! Not something I can send as attachments. Once completed, I would like to be able to sell as tutorials and that is another thing to learn how to do properly. Obviously, I have a lot to learn and would like to know where to go for more in-depth instructions.

Thanks for your suggestions thus far Diane. I checked out the PDFill option you mention... not for Macs as far as I can tell. I am using Word for Mac and wonder if there would be any benefit to working with Pages (I would have to purchase it first).

Anyone work on both a PC and a Mac, with Word and with Pages have an opinion?

Thanks for all input.

[Diane Woodall]

Hi Harriett, The answer to your question about whether the tutorial would sell or not...YES! I don't really think you have any idea how many people would sell some of their hoarded glass to buy your tutorial on making watercolor flowers.

I've seen your beads in person and I can tell you they are extraordinary!

So put your mind to rest as far as demand goes. People will be lining up to buy it. Fortunately we are all online or there might be shoving and biting. ;)

[Sherry]

Timely discussion. I'd like to create tutorials starting with the word doc pages I create for metal working classes I teach (MANY unique techniques). When I added photos and converted to PDF, the files were huge! Not something I can send as attachments. Once completed, I would like to be able to sell as tutorials and that is another thing to learn how to do properly. Obviously, I have a lot to learn and would like to know where to go for more in-depth instructions.

Thanks for your suggestions thus far Diane. I checked out the PDFill option you mention... not for Macs as far as I can tell. I am using Word for Mac and wonder if there would be any benefit to working with Pages (I would have to purchase it first).

Anyone work on both a PC and a Mac, with Word and with Pages have an opinion?

Thanks for all input.

Carol, many pdf programs will give you a choice of file sizes for the finished product. Also, make sure that your images are sized appropriately. I use a 'medium' quality for pdfs, the super-high quality makes for an enormous file!

[LampworkbyLori]

I'm a technical writer, so I have some tips.

Start each step with a verb (1. DO this.) followed by a photograph if necessary. Include any incidental information in a new indented paragraph (or two) under the step. Also, many tutorials I read have multiple steps combined in a single paragraph - it is best to break them out.

Consider breaking a very long tutorial into tasks or procedures. (e.g. Making the Cane [steps 1-10], Applying the Cane [steps 1-5], etc.)

Consider including small (about 2" x 3") well-cropped photos to let the user conserve ink and paper if they want to print the tut. Users can always magnify photos in pdf's if desired.

[Kalorlo]

Timely discussion. I'd like to create tutorials starting with the word doc pages I create for metal working classes I teach (MANY unique techniques). When I added photos and converted to PDF, the files were huge! Not something I can send as attachments. Once completed, I would like to be able to sell as tutorials and that is another thing to learn how to do properly. Obviously, I have a lot to learn and would like to know where to go for more in-depth instructions.

Thanks for your suggestions thus far Diane. I checked out the PDFill option you mention... not for Macs as far as I can tell. I am using Word for Mac and wonder if there would be any benefit to working with Pages (I would have to purchase it first).

Anyone work on both a PC and a Mac, with Word and with Pages have an opinion?

Thanks for all input.

This is a bit late, but in case it is useful:

On modern Macs, you can print to PDF from *every* program. So yes, you can create PDFs directly from Word. Or from anything else. File > Print > PDF button on bottom left.

Filesize: it depends on how large your images are, and in what format they were originally. For people with the full version of Adobe Acrobat, there are lots more options for how you want images to be dealt with in your PDF, but with the free solutions you don't get that kind of control. So you need to trade off between image resolution/quality and filesize before you convert your document. (This is why people sometimes do a separate high-res PDF for printing - anyone who just wants to view it on a screen doesn't have to download a huge thing).

[Holaday]

Kalorlo,

Thank you for your input. I have the full Creative Suite, Office for Mac, and Acrobat Pro.... so I am swimming in options but missing instructions for how to best combine them for the creation and publishing of BOTH on-line only and print purposes.

I find Word difficult to work with. I much prefer Publisher, but Office for Mac doesn't include this option.

My tutorials would be for metal working and coloring techniques and not for bead making. Mostly I would be adding step-by-step photos to my already written instructions and making this available to my students as well as anyone else interested..... perhaps simply sharing on my blog site.

Thanks again for your help.

[Kalorlo]

Do you have InDesign included with Creative Suite, Carol? If you do, I'd be using that and ignoring Office. Much easier to do proper layout in a real DTP program than trying to get Word to leave images where you put them... If there's anything specific you're not sure how to do, try having a look for tutorials - there tend to be loads of them.

For anyone else: there's an open source DTP prgram called Scribus that I rather like. It's more complicated than Word, but if you're used to using Photoshop, for example, you should be fairly at home and there's loads of online documentation. You create text frames to put text in, image frames to put images in and you have layers and master pages. There are Mac and PC versions. You get plenty of options for creating pdfs for printing too.

[Holaday]

Yes, I do have InDesign.... with all the help and tutorials it comes with. Guess it is time to learn how to use it. Thanks for the suggestion. I've only used Dreamweaver and Photoshop from CS3 and felt overwhelmed when I first started with those.

Thanks once more.

[SerendipityArtGlass]

I really like a tutorial that has the important steps on the last page so that I can take it to the torch with me after reading the tutorial. It doesn't have to be fancy, just copies of the pictures in the tut to serve as a reminder of the steps. So much easier than trying to turn the mandrel and turn pages of a tutorial which may or may not be on fire!

[PerfectDeb]

Do you have InDesign included with Creative Suite, Carol? If you do, I'd be using that and ignoring Office. Much easier to do proper layout in a real DTP program than trying to get Word to leave images where you put them... If there's anything specific you're not sure how to do, try having a look for tutorials - there tend to be loads of them.

For anyone else: there's an open source DTP prgram called Scribus that I rather like. It's more complicated than Word, but if you're used to using Photoshop, for example, you should be fairly at home and there's loads of online documentation. You create text frames to put text in, image frames to put images in and you have layers and master pages. There are Mac and PC versions. You get plenty of options for creating pdfs for printing too.

oh boy do i second this!!

i struggled with document layouts in Word and Publisher for years before i was given ID as a gift from a graphic designer friend - its like going from steam driven to nuclear power

[swamper]

I found this on Pinterest. It might have some useful advice since she writes tutorials.

http://www.madincrafts.com/2012/05/mad-writing-skills-how-to-write-a.html

[Carolyn Hipskind]

Hi Harriet: I "discovered" your Watercolor Floral Beads about a year ago & think they are just lovely. I'm interested in any tutorial you would make available. Carolyn

[Holaday]

Swamper,

thank you for the link to the Tut on making an A+ Tutorial. Very helpful.

Now to learn ID and get to work.

[pattybeads]

OMG, YES! Please do it Harriet! I would love to know how to make your beautiful flower beads. At least I'd like to try. lol
Hi Obsession,
First I want to thank everyone for all the good advice. If I do tut it would be about watercolor florals. Right now my son, his wife and three young children are moving to Louisville, so I can't think about anything until they are settled. I just wondered what it would entail to do a tutorial, and if they would sell. Again, thanks so much for all the input.
Harriet