GMU:Tutorials/Documentation/Tutorial How-To: Difference between revisions

Tutorials are one main reason the Medienwiki exists, but not everything is as well documented as it should be. So in this tutorial i want to explain what you can do to make it better.

You should write about anything, but it helps if you're feeling passionate about you're project. You should also preferably wrote about something original, there are not that many projects online here but you should first check if no one else wrote about it yet.

Show us what you have made

==Structure==

You need to be aware of the way your reader encounters your work.

The first thing the reader sees is unfortunately just the title of the work and the description of the course it was made in.

For the Top of your page choose a picture that shows your work in its best light. This is the first time the reader is going to encounter your work by actually seeing it, so it has to make a good impression.

Position an instruction underneath the top image. The instruction itself should be reasonably short, and doesn't need to include any details of how you made the project. Throw in a little history of how you came up with the project if you like. If the back-story is long, it might be worth a whole step to itself.

Assuming the title and course description has persuaded the reader to start reading the next thing they see is a photo of your work and the instruction. This is the last chance to convince wavering readers to continue reading, so take a few minutes to get it right

Theres no rule how you want to structure your tutorial every tutorial/presentation differs from the other, but there are some essential steps you should keep in mind:

Make a list to help others to get organised before rebuilding you're project in real or in they're minds especially if there are special uncommon items they need to borrow or buy.

For projects that have to do with electronics for example do you need to prepare something? Anti static mat, preheating your soldering iron, 3D printing some parts etc.

Make a step by step description of how you made and better take it slow. No one knows better what you've did than you yourself but for others it maybe isn't that easy to follow your lead.

Have you been confronted with some issues that were hard to figure out how to do but you solved it somehow using a clever trick. Then share it with you're readers they will be thankful about that.

Now after finishing your projecting and reflecting onto it while writing about it. Do you have plans for the future, do you think theres more potential in it or do you want to do something different than you did. You'll readers will be excited to hear about it especially if you've done some really vague project wich doesn't have an clear outline yet.  

There are some things you should mind using the wiki, it has some shortcuts for lay outing the text that you need to quote into you're text.

Also theres a sidebar above the text window wich contains shortcuts for lay outing:

2. Compress your image as much as you can (the wiki wont show to big files either)