OT: Mentoring Mac NewBies

[Frank D. Engel, Jr.]

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It's a shame that "Macintosh Basics" doesn't seem to be around anymore. 
  That was a *very* well-done, very simple animated tutorial on how to 
use a Macintosh.  It included training for mouse and keyboard skills, 
working with the Macintosh interface and the finder, application 
basics, and so forth.  I think they used to include it with Macs -- on 
a 3.5" floppy, of course.  Way out of date by now, but it was likely 
one of the best "intro to computers" tutorials I have ever seen.

I found a website about that program here:

http://www.q-design.com/examples/Instructional/MacBasics.html


Meanwhile, possibly not what you are looking for, but:

http://www.ku.edu.tr/text/help/mac/system_basic.html
http://www.help2go.com/article71.html
http://mmlweb.rutgers.edu/music127/basic/mac_basics.htm
http://www.asisna.com/eagles/mac/macbasics.html



Ya' know, this would be a fun project to do in Rev, actually.  Hide the 
menubar and dock, and do a full-screen kiosk type of thing (with an 
'exit' button, of course), with multiple tutorial topics and so forth, 
as a kind of modernized "Macintosh Basics" tutorial.  A similar program 
could be done for Windows, and much of the content could be re-used 
with some modified graphics, since the basic mouse and keyboard 
techniques (at least) are essentially the same...


If I ever get the free time again (Ha!) maybe I'll try something like 
this, if no one beats me to it.


On Feb 6, 2005, at 1:49 AM, Dan Shafer wrote:

> I can second the recommendation of Pogue's book as the mentor of two 
> people very much like the one you describe.
>
> Dan
>
> On Feb 5, 2005, at 5:33 PM, JOHN RUSSELL wrote:
>
>> I think David Pogue's Mac OS X: Panther Edition, the Missing Manual 
>> (O'Reilly) might be a help to you.  It's over 700 pages in length, 
>> but quoting from the back cover, here's how it starts:
>> "Getting started: The early chapters demystify the Dock, windows, and 
>> the unfamilar Mac OS X folder structure - - an ideal introduction."
>> Here is a partial list of early major topics from the table of 
>> contents:
>> Folders and Windows
>> Organizing Your Stuff
>> Dock, Desktop, and Toolbar
>> etc., etc....probably much more than you want to know.
>> This book is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and any online 
>> tech bookstore, as well.
>>
>>
>>> If she wanted to, on her own, "get up to speed," are their any 
>>> learning resources on the web to get someone who doesn't even know 
>>> what you mean when you say "The Finder" up to a new level of 
>>> computer fluency... I'm not talking about making this level of 
>>> newbie a programmer, just conversant in how to use the machine 
>>> works, navigate, etc.
>>> I'm familiar with the Mac's own "For New Computer Users" in the 
>>> help... but am looking for other similar resources as well.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> use-revolution mailing list
>> use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
>> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
>>
>
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>
>
- -----------------------------------------------------------
Frank D. Engel, Jr.  <fde101 at fjrhome.net>

$ ln -s /usr/share/kjvbible /usr/manual
$ true | cat /usr/manual | grep "John 3:16"
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life.
$
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