Somebody please make a tutorial for NW Pro!

[Rjones]

I really want to get into NWP, but the manual is not too helpful in terms of learning the program. Frankly, it was not really designed to do that, and it requires a lot of flipping to other places for more explanations.

I have looked everywhere I can think of to find a tutorial - video, book, or interactive lessons - all to no avail.

Other programs, such as Scrivener and Mellel have very abundant and detailed tutorials available. I just don't get why Nisus doesn't produce something.

I am not a word processing rookie, and I am looking for an alternative to MS Word for Mac. Based on reviews, I bought NW Pro. The transition is proving more time-intensive than I ever imagined.

If anyone has any suggestions for a learning resource, please respond.

Thanks.

[ptram]

Rjones,

Here is your resource. Here at the forum you can find answers to your questions!

Cheers,
Paolo

[Patrick J]

If anyone has any suggestions for a learning resource, please respond.

Thanks.

I'm afraid I don't have any suggestion for a learning resource, the manual is it. Nisus Writer is a very full featured program and so the manual is necessarily large.

I first started using Nisus Writer many years ago on the classic OS and then there was a printed book, which I still have today in fact. That printed book was just the manual printed out however I found it to be rather useful.

Maybe if you print out some of the manual it will become more digestible? If you have an iPad or one of these newfangled things maybe you could put the manual onto that. For some reason I found having the manual as a book to be rather helpful, although I don't know why.

I do agree that some extra learning resources would be useful. Videos showing the new user the basics would be rather good.

Personally I would really like it if Nisus created a help for the built in Apple Help system. I don't think this would necessarily contain all the contents of the manual, but it could contain a lot.

[Rjones]

Thanks to you who replied to my post, especially Patrick. Interestingly, I think the responses - and the non-replies of those who viewed my post - sort of demonstrate the point I am making: There are virtually no training resources available for this program.

Please, Nisus. . . . You would serve your customers well by providing them some tutorials that would orient them to the program. Give us at least a few lessons to introduce the interface and the basics. Then provide a few more advanced lessons to show us what NWP is capable of doing.

Or, perhaps a user who is proficient . . . might put together a tutorial and make it available on Udemy or Lynda or the like. You could make a few bucks that way & help out some folks.

Thanks.
Richard

[phspaelti]

Hello Richard,

let me turn the question around: What type of topics would you want or need a tutorial for?

Merely documenting a program of Nisus' complexity is is a huge job. The Macro Reference alone is over a 100 pages, and it pretty much just lists the functions.

[Elbrecht]

Hi Richard -

in the days of old & Nisus Classic, there was this famous book of Joe Kissell: "The Nisus Way" - and I remember some time ago he asked the forum about topics for a new Nisus Writer book project. I don't know about the status of the project - but that would be quite a different approach over against the Nisus Writer Manual.

HE

http://alt.cc/tnw/index.html
http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl ... us%2520way

[Jtummins]

I'm making some introductory tutorials for a friend that just started using Nisus Writer Pro. Since videos have been requested here, I'm posting them to YouTube. The links to the first four are included below. (There will be a total of six.)

1. NWP - Working Environment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kaz_3Bsdjbs
2. NWP - Using Styles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zwKDgk8XYs
3. NWP - Find and Replace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnY7QVfi_ls
4. NWP - Navigating and Organizing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKaclcyUSdU
5. NWP - Hyperlinks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV52EQhX3po
6. NWP - Revisions & Comments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIdowuCTasA

You can find links to the full list here: https://nisus.com/support/pro/videos.php

Update 2016-05-03: Added URLs for the all tutorial videos.

James

[NisusUser]

James,

Thank you very much for the video tutorials. I think you did it well, and I'm sure it'll help users. I've been using NWP for quite a while, but there is much I don't use, I'm sure.

I downloaded the four you posted. Next time I need to help someone get his or her mind around NWP I'll know where to go.

[Jtummins]

I've added the fifth video tutorial to YouTube:

5. NWP - Linking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV52EQhX3po

James

[martin]

Thank you indeed James! Your videos do a great job of gently introducing some of Nisus Writer Pro's extended tools. You have a nice way of calmly walking the viewer through your steps, in a way that certainly should be useful to newcomers. Thanks for making these

[DrBop]

Another big THANK YOU to James Tummins for the video tutorials. Very helpful to this new user of NW Pro.

I am grateful for the clear explanations, the time invested, and the generosity behind the effort.

Don

[Jtummins]

It's gratifying that the tutorial videos are of use to NWP users. The folks at Nisus Software were very encouraging and supportive, and I thank them for that. I also want to thank them for promoting the tutorials in their newsletter. That increased views 5x within 48 hours.

I would entertain doing a few more of these if people suggest some specific topics that need to be addressed. Feel free to post suggested topics here for discussion and consideration.

[GraceLSuarez]

I watched Mr. Tummins' videos. They are very helpful. I too would like to see more tutorials. I'm finding the manual difficult to understand, and I've been using word processing programs since 1984! I'm not a newbie. I tried putting the manual on my iPad but it's PDF, so the letters are really tiny, and there's no real index. I'm not sure why Nisus doesn't publish the manual in ePub format.

I hate to whine, and I'm sure Nisus is a wonderful and powerful app, but I would love to see some tutorials. Maybe they could hire Mr. Tummins to do a whole bunch of screencasts.

[GraceLSuarez]

Suggestions for tutorials (as Mr. Tummins asked):

Creating and using templates (are they still called Stationery)?
Using the Document Manager
Publishing to ePub

[Jtummins]

I need a little help with the suggested tutorial for epubs. What more is needed that exporting the written document in epub format?