Digital Workshop

In the past four months I have had two responses, one on this list and one private, from Opus users, for which I am grateful, BUT both implying that I was being rather difficult in pressing for an answer to my question about training needs. If I am the only Opus user who is keen on tutorial material, then that is as it is, but being in a minority does not invalidate my query and I'd be grateful if someone from DW could take the time to respond to this:

With a new project about to start, I am lookng at the possibility of hiring a developer. This person has experience in other environments, but not Opus. I need to have them up to speed ASAP. Hence my queries about tutorial material. There appears to be no Opus training on offer, and there are no books or tutorials available, so I am left thinking about how am I to have my project's technical training needs met.

This cannot be such an unusual scenario.

If the position is that DW will not be providing any training materials then as a paying customer who has bought ALL upgrades of Presenter, Pro and XE since startng with version 2.81, I think it is proper that I should hear this from DW.

I have software to build. I really like Opus and hope to use it for my project, but if I can't get the kind of tutorials I need, there are alternatives on my short list. I just want clarification on the training issue before taking on a developer and deciding on my project toolset.

best regards,

Brian

Brian --

Why not hire a developer who is already an expert with OPUS? Then you don't have to teach them; they could teach you.

I'm interested in knowing which multimedia development tools on your "short list of alternatives" have video tutorials? Please let us know.

As I'm sure you have seen, this forum has a core group of non-DW people who, for no money or personal gain, take their valuable time to answer OPUS questions. As you learn more about how the OPUS software works, we hope you will contribute positive comments which help others.

We are hoping to include some additional and improved tutorial materials for Opus. We hope to include a basic introduction, a basic scripting intro and then some specific projects which might provide useful guidance for all our users.

The big problem we have is that Opus does a lot of things and is used by people for many different things. Almost everyone's training requirements are different. In our experience even "beginners" start at different points and have specific directions they want to begin travelling in - some are doing development, training, presentations or educational materials.

That's why we offer our training courses (see the services section of this website). These training sessions can be tailored to specific requirements and I believe prove highly cost-effective. If you'd like to arrange a course please contact sales@digitalworkshop.com.

Paul Harris

Paul

Thanks for clarifying the DW position. I can see that it might be difficult to guage what to put into tutorial material.

I do see your point of view and I accept that my advocating on behalf of video tutorials has run its course.

I will give due consideration to some DW training for myself or a developer, but it is unlikely I can fit it into my plans at present. You make an excellent product and you support it well.


all the best,

Brian

Fred

I've responded to Paul Harris elsewhere in this thread, saying that I won't raise the tutorial again. As you raised some issues for my consideration I'll respond to each in turn:



Developer: I'd rather work with a developer with whom I have good relations; in this case I have such a person lined-up, they just don't know Opus.


Other tools: Runtime Revolution - www.runrev.com - is what I had in mind. I explained in another post that I felt Opus would better suit the design I plan to implement. As this is a forum on Opus, I shouldn't think it proper to offer an extended list of alternative products.


Forum and 'positive contributions': there is a great deal I could read into this. I've been reading the Opus forums, incl. the orig. ones, for more than three years and I know of the depth and quality of help offered, and I know that you are an expert contributor.

I should say further that I am most intrigued by: "As you learn more about how the OPUS software works, we hope you will contribute positive comments which help others": first, who is the 'we' on whose behalf you speak/write here? and second, am I meant to invert the terms 'contribute, positive and help'?

I'm inclined to read these words as written, but a tiny niggling bit wonders if my tutorial advocacy was seen [by yourself, others in the nameless 'we' collective] as neither positive nor helpful?

Maybe, maybe not. It's late on Friday, I've just been down the pub, and I could be reading too much into this.

In any case, cheers,

Brian

I agree to Brian. It would be very helpful for new opus users to have more tutorials and samples.

I think it is not too difficult to find out which tutorials and samples are needed.

In the end there are not more than 20 or 30 always the same tasks that 95% of the users will cope with opus. All of them appear periodically in this forum.

Another way could be to look which tutorials are offered for other tools. I know by experience that these are almost the same ones for all tools I know.

Since, as Brian says, there are no books or third party tutorials for Opus available it would be great to have a growing stock of tutorials and samples for learning purposes.

T.

I have to agree with this post. As a person with no programming experience, I found the reference manuals on Opusscript hard to follow.
The provided examples are also very limited.
I know that Opusscript follows Javascript 1.1 programming, but my problem with learning Javascript, was that this mainly focuses on developing web sites. Their is also limited advice available on the net on Javascript1.1.

In saying this, the reason that I would not choose an oppostion programme, is that I have found Opus to be more intuitive than the other programmes that I considered.

I just wish that your reference material was as good as the programme itself.

Regards

Neil

I have only just joined this forum having discovered Opus only 2 weeks ago. I think the issue of tutorials and training DVDs etc is simply one of economics. While DW have bouyant sales they will percieve no advantage in creating tutorials, why should they? Sales are up so there is no problem and the cost associated with the venture would not be justified. The excuse that buyers are so diverse that it would be difficult to target is in my view just that - an excuse. Adobe, TechSmith(Camtasia), Serious Magic, Matchware, Boris Red, Sony Vegus and many many other companies all have excellent training tutorials because they see a benefit to potential customers especially newbies to the game and enjoy significant sales boosts as a result. Clearly this view is not shared by DW. Producing half a dozen Camtasia style tutorials would take only days to achieve and incure very little cost.

For a company producing state of the art presenation software which DW clearly is the DW web site is a complete disaster and in my view does no credit to DW at all. How a world leader in presenation software can be associated with such a poor site is beyond belief - take a look around the www and see what the competion is up to!

Will I buy buy Opus?
You bet I will, its excellent, its one of the best presentation software packages I have seen in years. Keep up the good work but redesign your website with your own product, but some WOW into it, get some tutorials on the go and watch your sales rise.

Geoff
Newcastle, New South Wales

just my 2c worth -

for absolute novices tutorials probably seem vitally important. Once people begin to master the application they will soon learn, especially by visiting this forum, that there are often many ways to skin the cat.
Perhaps what is missing is some sort of 'entry level' tutorial to give people immigrating from, say PowerPoint, some confidence in tackling their first project?
Beyond that there are so many varied potential uses for this product that it is really only by specific questioning that people can evolve the skillset that suits them.
I personally have never found a PhotoShop tutorial very useful - but good help files are essential. You could spend a lifetime learning PhotoShop, or for that matter, Opus...

A lot is said about the lack of good tutorials for OPUS.
When the program first came out as ILLUMINATUS OPUS the manual that came with it (Basically the Opus User Guide PDF file now found on the opus site) had at the back of the manual a first-hand guide to using the program. This is no longer available even in the poorly updated User Guide PDF now being made available on the site.
The new User Guide PDF manual which has an enormous amount of errors both spelling and sentences left out, and some instructions being incomplete. The latest PDF manual does not have any tutorials whatsoever.
If you are in need of a basic tutorial, and the resources that are used in the tutorial you are welcome to email me and I will be happy to email these to you.
The tutorials have been scanned from the original manual.
The resources for the tutorials were made available on the original program disk. (The current program disk DOES NOT COME WITH ANY TUTORIAL FOLDERS INCLUDED)
REMEMBER THESE TUTORIALS WERE ORIGINALLY MADE AVAILABLE BY DIGITALWORKSHOP FOR ILLUMINATUS OPUS
Regards
Ray
ankney@tsn.cc