X2 is a huge program... Well... Actually it's quite compact... What I mean is that it does many many things and has the ability to do them in many many ways. It's features and abilities are both *broad* (covering a lot of ground) and have *depth* (each area of ground that it covered is covered well).
What this means to a person who isn't already an expert in the Windows architecture, is a steep learning curve. I can stumble my way around Windows programs and figure things out pretty well. Also, I'm the kind of person that reads the manual. Just doing these two things makes a huge difference. I think the blog adds a whole other level of learning facilitation though....
LEARN by DOING:
My point is that people learn by *doing,* not just by reading. When I try to *do* something with X2 (add custom commands, do searches, etc, etc) I can look in the manual and find what information I need. But in this situation I have to already have a goal in mind of what it is I want to do. I.e., it will always be a feature I'm already--at least--vaguely aware of; one that I'm doing.
LEARN by READING:
On the flip side; If I'm just sitting back, not really working on anything particular, reading the manual, I can learn things that are entirely new to me.... "Hey cool, I didn't know X2 could do that!" However this scenario also has the disadvantage that it's learning by *reading* and not by *doing.* The practical "real life" component is not present. This significantly reduces internalization of the skill and the ability to generalize it into *doing* settings.
LEARN by READING and VICAROISLY DOING:
I believe that your blog entries provide the best of both of these worlds. First you start with some real-world scenario that the average reader can relate to. (In education we call this an "anticipatory set.") This provides that real life tie-in. Then you introduce some new X2 feature. "Hey cool, I didn't know X2 could be used to solve this problem!" This introduces me to an X2 feature that I may have been totally unaware of, but it also provides it in a context of *doing*--though doing vicariously. Following up with video tutorials buttresses this provides (vicarious) practice, helping even more!
In short, thanks for the tips
-steve
