Re: Org Tutorials need more structure

[Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net>]

Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com> writes:

> 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?
>
> - Carsten

My feeling is, the tutorial structure might look like this:

Start with the basics: outlining and structure editing, plus
introductions to links and properties.

Then four other tutorials, presented in no particular order:

1. TODOs/agendas/task management (plus clocking)
2. Exporting
3. Babel
4. Tables/spreadsheets

Those four areas seem pretty distinct and independent to me (except
there's special cross-over between exporting and babel blocks). Any
given prospective org user will probably immediately gravitate to one or
more areas, leaving the others for later. Personally, I immediately
jumped into task management, then went to exporting, and I've only ever
dabbled in babel and spreadsheets. I think it would be good to keep
these areas fairly self-contained.

2 cents,
Eric