Rough Draft: Video Tutorial of Creating a Database and Simple Mail Merge

This is not fancy. There are a couple goofs. But it is accurate, and it's a video. Let me know how you like it!

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I realize the size is quite big -- one thing that isn't obvious because of that is the navigation tools way at the bottom. (I'm pretty sure that they show up for everyone; I hope they're not just appearing for me somehow because I have Captivate installed.)

Comments

[simfox]

Good topic for a tutorial, but lousy implementation:

1. Your video size is so huge that I have to scroll around while it is playing in order to see where you are moving the mouse -- please resize this tutorial to a more practical dimension. I have a 1280x800 screen which is fairly standard for laptops, but the viewing area in firefox is only about 1200x650. Resize down to 800x600 and most of the world will be able to see what you have produced.

2. Flash is a very inconvenient format. I cannot navigate back and forth through the session to better understand the complicated parts; I cannot store it for future reference; I cannot take it over to my mother, who would love to learn, but is on an ancient dial-up modem.

My suggestion would be to use a different video format altogether (mpeg, avi, wma, ogg-theora, whatever) so that your efforts are more useful to people the world over, who want to learn more about OpenOffice capabilities.

Otherwise, thanks for the good work!
--Simfox

[Antonis K]

Solveig, I think your video is perfect. I'm looking forward for the next one (soon!).
I would like to see videos about crearing cross-references, tracking changes, creation of complex shapes or diagrams etc.

Thanks for your contribution to our learning experiences with OpenOffice.org.

Antonis

[Solveig]

Ah, it is a bit big isn't it?

You can actually navigate though; there are navigation buttons way at the bottom of the display area.

I'll investigate non-flash but my experience with various formats so far, granted somewhat limited, is that flash is the smallest file size.

Cross-references is definitely a good topic; there are 2 1/2 (roughly ;> ) ways to do it, all with tradeoffs.

Thanks,
Solveig

[Jake H.]

I thought you said this was a rough draft? It was a very well done tutorial, better than some finished products I've seen!

Video is a nice option for users who like to "see" it done first and have a hard time with written instruction. But I will say that most of your tips have good screen-shots, so they are quite good on their own.

Thanks for your great work you do around this effort. I hope you enjoy it and it is profitable for you!