How much interest in a website making tutorial?

**Xhris** · 21 January 2009, 05:46 PM

I'm wondering whether I should spend some time writing a website making tutorial. I'm very short of time at the moment and it will take many hours to complete, so I'm not sure whether it’s a good use of my time at the moment. How many people are actually in need of such a tutorial? (I’ll set up a poll). People have had and still are having far more trouble making websites in Xara than would be ideal given Xara’s aim with this feature. This really does indicate a failure of Xara’s help files on website creation—which are surprisingly poor and unhelpful compared to the rest of them. Even I had trouble trying to grasp the nuances of a MouseOver layer and what specifically makes it different from popup layers etc. It seems somewhat self defeatist to spend many months developing a feature only to spoil it with mediocre documentation. The forums and other websites are scattered with desperately needed help and tips etc, but there is no centralised, fully replete reference source available that contains everything. There is already quite a lot of help out there though. I did intend on writing such a tutorial when Xara 4 first came out, but I was too busy at the time and thought other people’s contributions had solved the initial problems figuring website making out.

My aim would be to cover everything that is known about what you can do with Xara’s HTML export, including all the undocumented features and other tricks possible. As with my other tutorials it will be written as methodically and lucidly as possible, and may be accompanied with video tutorials eventually.

Xara 5 can’t be too far off now given the time since 4 was released last end of March and I suspect the HTML features will have been added to/improved in some way. I’ll probably end up writing a second modified tutorial for the new Xara version when it’s released too if I start this one.

**steve.ledger** · 21 January 2009, 07:32 PM

Gary's May 2008 Tutorial seems to have it well covered for newcomers to website building which get's them started, even those with some experience can learn from his Xtreme html tutorial.
Personally I like seeing video tutorials broken up into short parts (part 1 part 2 etc), seeing and listening is often am easier way to absorb and learn important knowledge rather than reading lengthy articles (in spite of them being methodically and lucidly well written).
Your current YouTube videos are very good at this and would be an ideal method to concentrate future tutorial effort on.
That's how I see it Xhris

**BobMoyer** · 21 January 2009, 07:43 PM

Gary's May tutorial was great. I created a rudimentary website that I was very pleased with. However, a video tutorial explaining the features (both documented and undocumented) is a fantastic idea as far as I am concerned. I have viewed many of your 'youtube' tutorials and find them easy to follow and extremely informative. So my vote is 'YES'.

Bob

**cobbles end** · 21 January 2009, 07:54 PM

I agree with Bob - videos are great, but what I like about your written tutorials is that I can print them off and then follow them with ease - a proper manual I read over again and can annotate if needed. Clear as a bell.
Steve

**Metro Golden** · 21 January 2009, 08:13 PM

I can never get enough tutorials whether written or video that help reinforce or suggest different aspects of the process. Xara 4 is increasingly being used for website creation (mine included) and can easily justify greater explanation. So in short... Yes!

**Xhris** · 21 January 2009, 08:20 PM

Interesting feedback so far. I plan on converting my written tutorials to both purely printable and purely web-based reference forms eventually. The web-based form will have the advantage of having YouTube videos embedded within them at the corresponding parts replacing pictures in most cases. This should cover all bases.

**Burpee** · 21 January 2009, 11:47 PM

I wrote my own html but my site is way too crude and old and un-updated. I really need to redo it soon but I have not looked at Xara's documentation on it. I just bookmarked Mark's link, perhaps that will inspire me to update it.

**gracehjs** · 22 January 2009, 04:57 PM

I did manage to make my website with the current information, but I just love watching your tutorials.It is quite amazing how watching something is so different from reading it.