Learn Any Computer Program in 5 Easy Steps -- Step 5
We have spent the last couple of weeks examining programs. But so far, we haven't tried to use the program. We've learned how to use the box to make sure that the program will do what you want it to and be able to run on your machine. We looked at the quickstart tutorial book to see how to install the program and while it was installing, seeing what the key features of the program are. We scoured the menus to find the common menu items and toolbars, see the features that were specific to the program, and see what some of the keystroke shortcuts are. Finally, we went into the help files to see what clues they would have about the program. Now that we have done all of this research, it is time to take action.
Experiment With the Program
This may seem like the shortest of all the sections since we started. Don't let that fool you. Of all the steps, this is the most important, the longest to perform, and the most fun.
So what is it?
Experiment! Play! Have fun!
It's that easy and simple. Put the knowledge you have been gaining to use. Open up the program and create a new file. Play with the different options to see what they do. It doesn't matter if the final result looks pretty. That's not important. What is important is figuring out what the different tools do.
Remember that option in the menu that you wondered what it did? Try it out! Take it for a spin.
Try to use the program for why you got it in the first place. See if you have figured it out enough that you can do what you wanted. Even if you don't do it to the level of skill you would like to, I'd be willing to bet that you can at least make a beginners attempt.
Now, I have a little confession. These 5 steps won't make you an expert on any program. Some programs (or even kinds of programs) can take years of study and you might still never find all the features available. But these 5 steps will get you to a level of familiarity of the program that will allow any tutorial, any how-to book, or even the dry boring manual make more sense. When it tells you that the Widget Creator in the Widget menu will create a basic widget that you can customize, you will remember that you played with that feature and thus have a greater understanding faster of how to manipulate that widget because your not sitting there trying to figure out what the heck is a widget.
Let me give you an example from my own life. A few years ago, I found a 3D image creation program called Blender. When I first started using the program, I did a lot of what I'm recommending you do. Blender is an open source program availiable online for free. It's not an easy program to learn because the interface is a non-standard one. In other words, though it does have many features similar to most programs (menus, for example), some of them are in different places than in most other programs and they don't always follow the pattern that I showed you. This is an exception, rather than the rule. But I had been using programs for years prior to first using the program, so that was not a hard thing for me to adjust to.
Because this is a program available online, I didn't have a box to look at, but I did find a specification page on their web site that told me what my computer needed to have for the program to work and a features page that showed me what some of the features of the program were. They even had a gallery of images that had been created using the program. So I downloaded and installed the program.
I didn't really have a quickstart guide, but since I have used programs for years, I didn't really read the readme file. I could have, but I jumped right in.
The first thing I did was to notice that the interface was quite a bit different than I was used to. But there were menus up at the top of the page, so I looked through them. I saw menus in other places, so I briefly looked through those as well. A lot of what I saw I didn't understand at the time (and still don't), but I kept on.
The help menu in Blender just points to a bunch of tutorials and manuals, so I didn't really spend a lot of time going through them.
Next, I tried to create something. I went to the Add menu option I found at the top of the screen and tried to add a mesh object. There was already a square cube in the main view window, so I just added some object. I don't even remember now what I added. Even then, I still didn't know what I was doing.
Eventually, I did go back to the help menu and start trying to do some of the tutorials and manuals. For a program such as Blender, these tutorials can be a great help. But my time that I spent with the program before consulting the manuals did help me.
I would still consider myself a blender newbie. I've learned how to do some pretty interesting, almost realistic looking things, but I have not really had the time to fully study the program in the manner that I would like to. But some of the things I use regularly on that program are things I found in my initial exploration and playing with the features. Even now, when I do learn a new feature, I spend a little playing with it before I "learn" how to manipulate it. Sometimes I can figure out what something does, but other times, it does take a while.
I give you this example, which is an extreme example, and not one I'd recommend for a complete computer beginner, but if you are interested in computer graphics, it can be worth taking the time to learn this useful program. I chose to use the Open Office program in my example because, if you wanted to try the program yourself, it is one that is very easy to learn how to use, at least at a basic level, if you have ever used any kind of word processor or spreadsheet. And that is only the tip of the iceberg with that program, because it has many other cool features as well, including a database program, a drawing program that, though not competitive with commercial image editing program, is easy to use (and probably a lot better than MS Paint), and a Math program that lets you construct a complex mathematical formula in a way no other program I 've seen will let you do.
So there you have it. The five steps to learning any computer software program
Experiment With the Program
This may seem like the shortest of all the sections since we started. Don't let that fool you. Of all the steps, this is the most important, the longest to perform, and the most fun.
So what is it?
Experiment! Play! Have fun!
It's that easy and simple. Put the knowledge you have been gaining to use. Open up the program and create a new file. Play with the different options to see what they do. It doesn't matter if the final result looks pretty. That's not important. What is important is figuring out what the different tools do.
Remember that option in the menu that you wondered what it did? Try it out! Take it for a spin.
Try to use the program for why you got it in the first place. See if you have figured it out enough that you can do what you wanted. Even if you don't do it to the level of skill you would like to, I'd be willing to bet that you can at least make a beginners attempt.
Now, I have a little confession. These 5 steps won't make you an expert on any program. Some programs (or even kinds of programs) can take years of study and you might still never find all the features available. But these 5 steps will get you to a level of familiarity of the program that will allow any tutorial, any how-to book, or even the dry boring manual make more sense. When it tells you that the Widget Creator in the Widget menu will create a basic widget that you can customize, you will remember that you played with that feature and thus have a greater understanding faster of how to manipulate that widget because your not sitting there trying to figure out what the heck is a widget.
Let me give you an example from my own life. A few years ago, I found a 3D image creation program called Blender. When I first started using the program, I did a lot of what I'm recommending you do. Blender is an open source program availiable online for free. It's not an easy program to learn because the interface is a non-standard one. In other words, though it does have many features similar to most programs (menus, for example), some of them are in different places than in most other programs and they don't always follow the pattern that I showed you. This is an exception, rather than the rule. But I had been using programs for years prior to first using the program, so that was not a hard thing for me to adjust to.
Because this is a program available online, I didn't have a box to look at, but I did find a specification page on their web site that told me what my computer needed to have for the program to work and a features page that showed me what some of the features of the program were. They even had a gallery of images that had been created using the program. So I downloaded and installed the program.
I didn't really have a quickstart guide, but since I have used programs for years, I didn't really read the readme file. I could have, but I jumped right in.
The first thing I did was to notice that the interface was quite a bit different than I was used to. But there were menus up at the top of the page, so I looked through them. I saw menus in other places, so I briefly looked through those as well. A lot of what I saw I didn't understand at the time (and still don't), but I kept on.
The help menu in Blender just points to a bunch of tutorials and manuals, so I didn't really spend a lot of time going through them.
Next, I tried to create something. I went to the Add menu option I found at the top of the screen and tried to add a mesh object. There was already a square cube in the main view window, so I just added some object. I don't even remember now what I added. Even then, I still didn't know what I was doing.
Eventually, I did go back to the help menu and start trying to do some of the tutorials and manuals. For a program such as Blender, these tutorials can be a great help. But my time that I spent with the program before consulting the manuals did help me.
I would still consider myself a blender newbie. I've learned how to do some pretty interesting, almost realistic looking things, but I have not really had the time to fully study the program in the manner that I would like to. But some of the things I use regularly on that program are things I found in my initial exploration and playing with the features. Even now, when I do learn a new feature, I spend a little playing with it before I "learn" how to manipulate it. Sometimes I can figure out what something does, but other times, it does take a while.
I give you this example, which is an extreme example, and not one I'd recommend for a complete computer beginner, but if you are interested in computer graphics, it can be worth taking the time to learn this useful program. I chose to use the Open Office program in my example because, if you wanted to try the program yourself, it is one that is very easy to learn how to use, at least at a basic level, if you have ever used any kind of word processor or spreadsheet. And that is only the tip of the iceberg with that program, because it has many other cool features as well, including a database program, a drawing program that, though not competitive with commercial image editing program, is easy to use (and probably a lot better than MS Paint), and a Math program that lets you construct a complex mathematical formula in a way no other program I 've seen will let you do.
So there you have it. The five steps to learning any computer software program
posted by Grady @ 3:03 AM
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