Let's Get Started!

Created September 4, 2001 © Copyright Moon's Designs
Property of Moon's Designs
Please do not copy or place this tutorial or any graphics to any other place without written permission directly from me. Thank you
 

If you have gotten this far you are probably seriously considering tutorial writing, and I welcome you! Tutorial writing really isn't that hard. After all you are already creating in PSP now all you have to do is put your creations into words, but I will warn you now, it is a lot of work to create a tutorial.

The first thing you need is a website **smiles** I would have to say that the majority of us involved with PSP have a website, whether it's on a free service such as Geocities or Tripod, or having your own domain. You don't have to be an HTML expert to have a website, but you do need a website to put your tutorials on. Before I got my own domain I used Homestead. It was still free at the time, I could have multiple pages and it did the HTML for me -- in other words it served its purpose. From what I understand Geocities, Tripod and others have excellent "page makers". I know HTML, although I am not a pro at it by any means, but now that I have my own domain my program of choice is Dreamweaver. I prefer having a WYSIWYG program so I know what it's going to look like as I do it. There are other programs out there that are just as good and probably don't cost as much.

Whenever you are creating something in PSP write down your steps and I mean write down everything. Write down each setting for each application you use and have a good eraser on your pencil. Don't worry about screenshots yet ~~ if you follow what I do you will be making your creation twice.

Okay, I know what you are thinking because I thought the very same thing. "Gee, if I do it all at the same time I'll save a lot of time!" WRONG!! Stop and think how many times you've used the undo feature. You get halfway through your creation and decide maybe a different effect or setting would be better. So you either undo or start over and you really like the changes. Yikes!! What about all the screenshots you originally did? Did you remember to take screenshots of your changes? Which ones are which? Aggghhhh ~~ Trust me, do your creation twice.

Now that you have your creation the way you want it, it's time to do it again. The first thing you want to do is set up a new folder just for that tutorial. I have folders for everything. In My Documents I have a folder called "pattiscreations". In that folder I have a folder called "tuts" and in THAT folder I have folders for each tutorial. This makes it much easier when I get ready to go to Dreamweaver and write my tutorial.

Now start recreating your creation step by step. If there's something special you want to remember to explain in the tutorial, jot it down in your notes. I am a firm believer in explaining everything that I do. I take nothing for granted.

Take your screenshots ~~ remember to watermark them when you save them. Save everything into the folder that you set up and remember to save them as jpg as I don't think there are any HTML programs out there, or websites, that see PSP extensions. Try to keep your screenshots small enough to save on download but large enough so they can be read.

Don't assume that everyone can read the settings in your screenshots. Take the time to add layers and use text to type in the settings. If you don't want to do that then you should write each setting out when you are doing your steps.

When watermarking make sure that your watermark doesn't cover up something important. Nothing is more discouraging than to do a tutorial and when you get to an inner bevel screenshot and the watermark is covering part of the setting and you have to guess what it says.

Make sure you have the completed image saved with your watermark in your tutorial folder.

If you are using a graphic for your creation and the tutorial user can use that same graphic make sure it is saved without your watermark in your tutorial folder. If you have your watermark on the graphic they can use then they can't use it and call it their creation.

If you are using a mask, gradient, or tube that the user will need to complete their tutorial make sure you zip it up and include it in your tutorial folder. If you are using a zipped filter (with the authors permission) make sure that you have that in your tutorial folder.

If you are using selections, zip all of them up in one zip file and put them in your tutorial folder.

Let's Build A WebPage

The first thing you want to do is copy your tutorial folder to your web design program.

For your first tutorial you will want to outline the order in which you want things to appear on the page, then use this outline in each tutorial. Consistency is a good thing in my opinion. This is the way I have my tutorial pages set up:

  1. Title of Tutorial
  2. Picture of what we are creating
  3. First copyright statement with date of tutorial
  4. A little bit about the tutorial ~~ what inspired me and what filters, if any, will be used.
  5. A statement as to which version the tutorial was written in and what level the tutorial is geared for ~~ beginner, intermediate, intermediate-advanced, advanced.
  6. What they will need to complete the tutorial. **see additional notes below.
  7. The graphic that they can use if there is one. Tell them to right click on the graphic and save it to their hard drive.
  8. The steps in making the creation.
  9. A little closing statement hoping that they enjoyed my tutorial as much as I did making it.
  10. Links to my main page and tutorial index page.
  11. Mail box with a link to email me to.
  12. My large copyright statement.
  13. How to report a stolen tutorial with a banner to TWU.

** The basic things you need to tell them in what they will need to complete the tutorial.

  1. You should start off with JASC's PSP and make sure you tell them it's a 30 day free trial.
  2. Any free filters that they will need and either link to the website where they can get the filter or direct them to your zip file. After the filters I put a ** and tell them to unzip into their plugin folder. Some filters have special instructions so make sure you tell them that. For example, Filter Factory Gallery's must be converted using PlugInCOmmander (PICO) before they will be able to access it in PSP; Fantastic Machines Paint Engine must also be unzipped into their C:\Windows folder before they will see any presets. Just because you know the special instructions doesn't mean that everybody does.
  3. If your tutorial uses selections, direct them to get their selections zip file. Make sure you tell them that they need to have a special folder set up for selections and to make one if they don't already have one. This might be the first tutorial they are doing that uses selections so we need to tell them what they have to do.
  4. Any commercial filters they might need ~~ link them to the website. Tell them if they will have to buy it or if there is a trial they can download.
  5. If you are using a graphic to make your creation tell them the name of it and who the artist is. Make sure you have a link directing them to the artist's site.

At the end of each item, I include the statement, "You can get it "HERE", then link the "HERE" to the website or zip file.

Please click on this LINK and you will see how I have a tutorial page set up, this goes to one of my tutorials that is already on-line.

How you set up your outline is entirely up to you. These are only guidelines as to how I start off my tutorials. Please remember this is YOUR site, I'm just here to help you get started.

The next thing is to go through each step as to how to make the creation. I tell them everything; remember a lot of the people that come to your site and do your tutorials are new. Just because it is something that you always do doesn't mean they know that. I recently tested a tutorial and at the end the author hadn't told the user to merge their layers before saving it to a jpg extension. When I mentioned that to her she thanked me and said "You know, it's something I do automatically and didn't think about telling them."

After you get all your steps written out upload your page to your server and send it out for testing. Make any applicable changes that your testers suggest and upload it again. Once you have that done you can let people know that YOU have a tutorial!

I do hope that this has been useful for you and that you will now consider writing a tutorial. If you have ANY questions I will be here as a resource. I am hoping that other tutorial writers will let me know if they will be available as a resource as well.

 

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Tutorial written and created by Patti Wavinak for Moon's Designs. These Tutorials are copyrighted by law. You may LINK to them only. You may not remove any of the graphics, zip files or HTML within these pages to reproduce these Tutorials, without the expressed permission of Moon's Designs. These pages may not be removed from this website and sent via e-mail, nor saved, stored or archived in files in YahooGroups or other mailing list sites, nor may they be translated and placed on another site.
Creations made from these tutorials are your creations.

Moon's Designs holds the copyright to all selections, original tubes and original images that I have created and provided for use within my tutorials. Page backgrounds and images are created exclusively for this website and may not be downloaded or used without written permission.
If you would like to use any of my tutorials for group lessons please contact me.

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