Re: Org Tutorials need more structure

[Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl>]

Dnia 2013-09-28, o godz. 08:11:23
Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com> napisał(a):

> Hi everyone,
> 
> today I looked at our tutorial page at
> 
> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/index.html
> 
> and came away with the feeling that that this page has become
> somewhat useless for people who are really new to Org.  I think
> the page should start with a section of true recommendations
> for beginners, a path we tell every new users to take in order to
> learn about Org mode.
> 
> Can we have a discussion here on how this path should look like?
> When you came to Org-mode as a newby, what were the three resources
> that really made an impression on by being accessible and
> providing feel and promise for digging deeper?

As I hinted in my previous email, there are two cases:

1. Emacs users who are new to Org-mode.

This is basically covered by the manual.  Period.

2. People new to Emacs who might want to use it /because/ of Org-mode.

Here we have a huge potential for improvement, so to speak;).

A couple of thoughts:

- Screencasts and videos might be a viable option (even though it is a
  bit old, I consider your Google lecture a very good introduction to
  Org-mode - a survey of features; it is, however, aimed more at a
  power user than a newbie).
- What might be really interesting would be something along the lines
  of C-h t.  In fact, the Emacs tutorial itself badly needs an update
  imho.  And a similar thing for Org-mode might be even better.  In
  fact, though I am quite busy at the moment, I'd be happy to start
  thinking about something like this in my free time.  What do you
  think?
- For new users, there might be an installation instruction /including/
  installing Emacs (especially on Windows machines, where it might be
  tricky).  I think it should be emphasized that (at least in case of
  Org-mode) Emacs may be treated more as an application framework,
  which incidentally has more text-editing capabilities than, say, edit
  boxes of GTK etc. (just a bit more, you know;)), and that Org-mode is
  an application running in this particular environment.  (Calling it an
  Elisp Virtual Machine might be a bit stretching, though;).)
- Last but not least: we are still waiting for Sacha Chua to draw a
  sketchnote-based intro to Org-mode;).

> - Carsten

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Adam Mickiewicz University