【】如何有效的创建一个教程-- 翻译讨论

How to Effectively write a tutorial

如何有效的写一篇教程

 

这确实是值得探讨的问题，有点像小学时候的作文课。 正是因为讨论的是这么基础的问题，才觉得非常有必要仔细的看一看，然后提出自己的观点和大家讨论

In one of my previous articles, I shared with you my opinions and viewpoints on How to effectively write a design article. I was quite pleased with the feedback I received. I think there are more people out there who need to be made aware of how to write a tutorial on Photoshop or Illustrator. Once this is learnt and mastered, it is quite evident that the tutorial is going to reach out to many people than it would have done if you don’t know the basic protocols to be followed while writing a tutorial.

作者前面还写过如何写一篇好的设计文章，受到了很好的反响。掌握了很好的设计技术技巧，然后自己想把知道的东西表达一些出来，但是总像是欠缺了一些基本的能力，这是一件很悲哀的事情。 这一点我是感同身受的，这个时候才意识到书到用时方恨少，自己的表达能力已经低到了一个程度， 想想那些写的好一些的人，他们具备了哪些技巧呢？ 这正是本文作者出发的初衷。

 

If you have noticed, once you finish writing your tutorial and submit it to few of the sites which showcases tutorials, for example good-tutorials, Pixel2life, to name a couple; not all of them get accepted. So, how does one make sure that his/her tutorial is upto their standards or what they feel is worthy enough to be published. Most of us do not see this paradigm but due to the gigantic number of design blogs that are floating out there on the web, it becomes extremely difficult to accept each and every tutorial that is being submitted.

作者提到，如果觉得自己写的东西对别人有用，会考虑将这些教程推到专业的教程网站（设计类），但是由于互联网的发展，现在这样的教程已经是非常多了，动手之前有没有考虑过他们为什么要接受你的这些教程呢？ 国内的教程网站还不多，各种职业培训倒是跟牛皮癣一样到处都是，国外专业做教程的网站非常的多，国内估计在不久的将来也会出现仿制的站点，有没有考虑过除了将帖子贴在除了想CSDN这样的网站呢？ 最主要的是如果想写好一篇文章，你真就能做到么？

 

So, what are the ways and methodologies you can follow, which as a result produces an effective way to write to tutorial. These are a few of the points which i believe when used, will ensure your tutorial gets appreciated by many readers, beginners and experts.

像真正的论文写作一样，想写好任何一篇文章都是有着基本的技术和技巧的，作者在这里给您一一道来

1) Ask yourself, What is the purpose?首先要问问你自己，你为什么写？你的目的是什么

 

Never be under the notion that you are going to, and should gain lots of traffic and increase the number of visits by writing a tutorial. Tutorials are meant to teach people something new. Its a manner of sharing what you know and what you love to. Trust me, even if the tutorial is good (if not phenomenal), and if you put your heart into creating it, people will eventually appreciate your work and your effort.

其实作为博客的作者来说，要考虑写作的目的真的是...，但是如果从写教程的角度出发呢？你希望跟大家分享你知道的东西，你希望大家能够学会你知道的东西，要考虑到那么多的人回来点击你的作品，如果你真的是从这个角度出发的，那么就要用心去做，也就是说你必然要花费大量的心血在一片文章里面， 我写文章的时候虽然是真心诚意的想要和大家分享我觉得很好的东西， 但是往往也没有投入大量的精力来写， 有的时候甚至是原文摘抄了， 当然这些博文都不能称得上是作者这里说的待发表的教程，当然于是也得不到广泛的评论了。

 

If you attempt to write a tutorial to increase traffic or to make quick money, not only will it be obvious that you are not teaching anything that is useful, but it is sure to be filled with a lot of inevitable mistakes and is bound to reveal your bad intention to the readers. While writing a tutorial, consider yourself as a teacher trying to educate some students on a certain concept and how to arrive at it from different perspectives.

好的教程发表以后是可以赚钱的， 也许这也是你写教程的另外一个动力。 但是当你精心打造的教程里面出现不可避免的错误的时候，你的这种原始的动机就开始展露了， 如何避免呢？ 当然是少考虑考虑这中原始动机， 多花一点心思在你的教程上， 把自己设想成是一个老师，如何教会你的学生，你会做的这一切。

 

Try to analyse the difficulty of the achieving the result. This helps you to target more users, both beginners and the ones with intermediate skills.

多分析一下你所做的问题的难点和重点， 并且尽可能多的考虑你的教程所面向的读者，考虑初学者肯定没有错

2) Choose a Good title and description选一个好的标题和描述

I think it is an obvious fact that people tend to read the title first rather than read the rest of the tutorial or see the pictures. So, always choose the optimum title which best explains what you are going to teach in the tutorial. For instance, let us consider you are writing a tutorial on creating a typographic poster with some grungy effects in it. So, the best title would definitely look something like ‘Create a Grungy typographic effect using Photoshop’. As you can see, the title itself is where the desicion is being taken by the readers. Thye gets a clear idea of what they might be expecting out of the tutorial.

读者最先见到的部分肯定是标题，这一点是毋庸置疑的，现在漫山遍野的RSS阅读器，有的BURNER甚至都不收录内容部分的，因此你的标题取得好不好直接就影响了你教程的潜在读者的数量， 就比如说我的这篇文章的标题， CSDN的RSS BURNER不会烧录图片，没有格式， 因此你倒不如实实在在的像准备你的毕设一样选择你的题目，道出你的内容， 说不定会赢得不少的目光的（谁知道呢？^^) 。 题目最重要的当然是要一目了然，标题党和低调党都是注定要悲剧的。

 

Dont exaggerate and always keep the title succinct. Remember, the more keywords you use in the description, the better your chances the tutorial will come up when someone is searching for something related.

描述里面提供关键字， 读着读着就觉得作者显然是以写PAPER的要求来要求写教程了，但是换个角度来想，显然有了这种规范之后人们才能将做事情的效率和能力提升一个档次。

3) Conduct a Survey进行调查

开什么玩笑，这不就是写PAPER么？ 固定的格式会毁灭你的创造性么？显然不会，我们必须知道每年全球的创新就是以这种格式呈现出来的。 你当然不必要仍然用诙谐的模式处理你的教程，但是遵循这些得到广泛承认的写作规范肯定不是什么坏事情。

调查是必须的，你写的教程别人已经做过，而且做的比你还要好？那你还写什么丫，你就直接歇菜了，写完也没人看。 因此你要写一篇教程必然是要高出现有的主题水平的，否则写什么写？一边歇着去，用句导师常讲的话 contribution 不够

Just because you know how to open Photoshop and perform a few tricks doesn’t mean you have mastered it and are ready to teach. Do not write tutorials on topics which seem very obvious to your readers. It is definitely going to result in a poor tutorial. So, try answering this question “Is my tutorial worthy enough to be shared with others, or is it just another of the trick which I know to perform, but I have no idea what on earth is really happening?“. Sometimes, I see many tutorials, which just tell the steps but never explain the reason behind why it is done. I have personally learnt a lot from this kind of an ordeal.

It is best to perform a thorough survey prior to writing a tutorial. You might want to try answering the following questions while you are taking the survey.

1) Is my tutorial previously attempted by any other sites?

2) Do I know enough to explain every step that I take in the process?

3) Has the appraoch towards the tutorial become outdated?

Well, to answer the first question, I would recommend you to just google your tutorial and find out related links to other tutorials and go through them thoroughly and see if they are similar to what you had in mind. If yes, discard your tutorial and try for a better one. With the extent of design blogs today, especially the ones which offer tutorials on Photoshop, chances are that your tutorial might be similar to the one written by a someone at the other end of the world. If this is the case, I would suggest you to find flaws and possible errors in it and try to rectify them, multiplex your ideas and approach and publish a refined version of the tutorial. This, of course is a “worst-case-scenario“. I would still suggest you to think of another idea for the tutorial.

Make sure, “you know what you are doing“. Do not just write a tutorial for the sake of writing it. Try to understand the purpose of each and every step you take to progress in the tutorial, the reason behind its usage and what might happen if you use alternate methods. This not only helps you to become a professional designer, but also gives a feeling to the reader that you are the right person to explain the tutorial. For example, if you are using a Blur Filter on an image, try to analyse and learn the reason behind using it. The best place to acquire this information is the PHOTOSHOP HELP SECTION. There is a plethora of information in the Help section that  will literally blow you away. If your extent of knowledge compares only to the tutorials you’ve read on other blogs, you probably shouldn’t be teaching because you don’t know anything about how to use the program.

There are tons of tutorials already on the web, for example a tutorial relating to shiny text effects has been covered in every possible dimension and there is no scope for neither improvement nor any further application of the effect. One of the main reasons most of the tutorials do not get accepted or get popular is because people have seen enough of that kind and aren’t interested in that anymore.

Pixel2Life has listed a few tutorial topics which you are advised to stay away from because of its redundancy. Here is the List.

4) Plan the tutorial effectively:有效的规划你的教程

接下来就是规划你的教程了，和写PAPER相似的是都要将你们的过程细细分解，让所有人都能看懂，PAPER显然没有做到这一点。 和写PAPER不同的是，你的教程要更加侧重于过程，你可以举例子，引用，链接。 你的过程要让人能够重新复制， PAPER这一点就... 考虑你的受众， 永远要考虑你的受众里面会有初学者， PAPER从来就不会考虑这一点， 于是无数的学术菜鸟在PAPER的海洋中苦苦挣扎

广泛的考虑受众还要注意的一点就是不要使用和谐的内容，在国内当然不能用和谐的内容，在国外呢？正如你知道的自由总是有限的，作者就举了一个例子说：PIL上有一篇写的很好的教程因为使用了少儿不宜的配图，被编辑一顿狠批，甚至是要BAN掉他们的站点。

It is advised that you plan how to approach the tutorial in a reasonably good manner. Plan each step carefully, note down the elements you need to use and decide on the best way to spread the idea in the most succinct way possible. This can be done by providing examples, case studies, relevant links for further understanding of a particular concept, etc. Assume that you are teaching a beginner in the initial stages and then gradually move up the ladder, trying to balance the length of the tutorial with the amount of valid information transmitted.

Also, remember that you are writing a tutorial to a wide audience and not only to your next door neighbor. Keep in mind that people from all race, religion, young and old are exposed to this tutorial. I quote this excerpt from one of the good articles written by Dan Richard of Pixel2Life :

I once saw a great tutorial on how to create bruises and cuts. It was very well written and the effects were pretty realistic and looked good. The problem? The author used a photo of a 6 year old! As a parent, I was appalled to see a picture of a beaten up child, even if it was done digitally and not only did the tutorial get declined, but the author got a nasty email from me and I was pretty much ready to ban their site from P2L.

So, I advice you keep your tutorial, the steps, the images you display and manipulate, as discrete as possible to avoid any unforeseen circumstances which might harm your credentials.

5) Be Honest with the requisites:诚实的说清楚的教程的要求

很遗憾的PAPER里面没有PREREQUISTE这个概念。在教程开始之前就要说清楚你的教程针对的是什么样的用户，初级的，中级的还是高级的。 同时要提供估计的消耗时间，当然不能忘记的是，你用了哪些工具。 如果你用到了一些很...的工具，那你要说清楚，不要让别人做了一半才发现，哇靠，我没有这东西，这会让人很反感，很倒胃口

Before starting off with any tutorial, give a clear indication or a short description on what kind of readers you are trying to target. PSDTuts usually applies this approach wherein they clearly state whether the tutorial is intended for beginners, intermediate or advanced users.

Also, provide a clear estimate on how much time you took to get to the result. This gives the readers an idea on how to prepare themselves for the rest of the tutorial.

Do not forget to mention the tools used to create the design. I can’t remember how many tutorials I started to try out and in the middle, had to get frustrated that Cinema 4D and ZBrush were used, which I had no clue whatsoever, about how to use them. In order to avoid this, mention the tools used by you and the ones that might be useful to achieve the exact result shown in the tutorial.

6) Give a glimpse of the final result:先给个结果先

无图无真相，没有真相的教程是没有人会关注的，记住

In order to keep the readers engaged in the tutorial, it is very important that you show them what you will be achieving by the end of the tutorial. This is a very good approach to keep them at the edge of their seats and also motivating them to try the tutorial out instead of just reading and forgetting it. This also allows them to devise a strategy to accumulate their skills prior to the start of the tutorial instead of getting confused midway

7) A picture is worth a thousand words 一张图胜过一千句话

觉得你要描述的过程异常的复杂，文字不能说清楚的时候，不要犹豫，上图吧？什么上视频，那太好了。 一张图胜过一千句话，一段视频胜过一千张图，这些都是前人总结的真理，不要花时间再去证明这些真理了。

What you are trying to explain in 5 to 10 lines can be neatly illustrated in just an image. Try to use as many images as possible. This type of approach not only keeps your readers engaged in the tutorial, but also allows them to learn faster and understand the steps better. Use visual pointers wherever necessary to indicate the process of the steps taken.

Also, remember not to overdo it. A tutorial with only images and no textual data will spoil the authenticity of the tutorial and the ability to learn. You cannot expect to teach every step using an image. Use them wherever necessary and use them wisely. Moreover, if the readers are in a city where the the broadband speed is relatively less, images tend to load slower and they will end up gazing at a blank screen throughout.

Take screenshots of every step you perform and document your every move. Take extra screenshots if needed so that you can probably edit them later and fit them into the tutorial if necessary. It is advised to show the workflow of how you achieved the result (using images and pointers), instead of lecturing about what you did. Please check out my previous tutorial on Retro Typography to understand how I have adopted this approach to improve the quality of my tutorial.

Also, it is usually advised to use stock images whenever necessary. This creates a professional environment. Try to avoid using lots of images from Google Images. Here is a list of 30 Websites where you can find FREE stock images for your tutorials, written by Web Design Booth.

8 ) Be consisitent with the Image size:图像的大小要一致

总算是讲到技巧了，哎， 这篇教程里的图像是大小一致的。 因为WEB排版不像PAPER排版那样有既定的工具和规范，WEB的排版难度要大很多，如果你觉得你自己排版很在行的话，那么无所谓排一篇非常NB的教程出来吧，但是如果不行的话，就采纳这个建议吧，肯定能让你的文章在排版上瞬间上升一个档次

his is one of the crucial steps in writing a good tutorial. Always keep the width of the images (screenshots, textures, stock imagery) consistent. This not only makes the post a little bit more readable and thus elevating the professionalism of your research, but also images with varying widths create some sort of a negative impression on your tutorial. Basically, it doesn’t look good

Also remember to crop your images to the relevant area which shows the steps or the exact area of operation. Using images as big as 2500px (the entire desktop as a screenshot) will only force the reader to spend the entire time trying to figure out exactly what the heck is going on.

截图的时候要注意关注你的主要区域，把不必要的区域就去掉了。

9) Give a detailed explanation来个详细解释

这就是我说的为什么说教程是教程而不是PAPER的地方，你要详细，详细在详细。 要不然你就拿去投PAPER算了。

Explain clearly what you are trying to achive with a particular step. Steps like — Click here > Drag this > Draw line > Click there > We’re done — appear juvenile and does not teach the reader anything but breeds ambiguity. if you are changing the blending mode of an image, explain why you are doing it and what are the advantages in doing so.

Also, mention the available shortcuts wherever necessary. Being aware of the keyboard shortcuts is a very important aspect because it not only allows the reader to understand the tutorial faster, but also adds a professional tint to the tutorial.

10) Involve the reader in the discussion平易近人的文字

这就是写教程最好的文字语言，为什么呢？什么为什么，没感到有点亲切么？ 没感到？...

Use language from a third person’s perspective. Try to involve the readers and immerse them into the tutorial as much as possible. Instead of saying “In this tutorial, I will be teaching you to create…….“, you can use “In this tutorial, we will be learning to create…….“. I don’t know if this really is a plus factor, but it has surely helped me build a better and a constructive discussion.

11) Avoid grammatical errors避免语法错误

我觉得当然是应该避免错误了，不过好在现在的拼写检查工具那么多，这应该不是什么难事。

I keep saying this over and over again. Always check your tutorial for flaws and grammatical errors. The last thing you want is, your readers getting stuck in the middle, not being able to understand what you are trying to say and trying to figure out what is missing in your tutorial. Grammatical errors can easily disrupt your reputation and chances are you might lose your reader base gradually. You can even consult some of your friends to review your tutorial and spot any mistakes or ask them for any suggestions. This will help you a lot in broadening your thinking and judging capabilities.

12) Finish it in style上型

你觉得解释的差不多的时候，就把你的结果亮出来吧，然后解释一下你的工作的应用场景，这个有点像论文的总结

After you are done with explaining what you intended to, upload the final image with some extra finishing and additions of your own but keep that part of the tutorial, a mystery. This forces the reader to actually go further and try to experiment with the final result, thus enabling him to spend more time on it.

It is a best practice to also explain where else the tutorial can be used and how it can help in creating other results. Give links to similar tutorials which more or less, extends further from what you’ve achieved.

Always put forth a question and allow users to interact and communicate with you as much as possible. Let them know that you are open to any kind of discussion and are ready to answer any questions, to the best of your knowledge and expertise. Invite you readers to share their results if they try the tutorial in the future and to also share any new ideas or easier methods to achieve a particular step where you might have taken a longer route otherwise. This not only creates an ideal learning center but also add value to the tutorial and the effort you put in writing it.

13) Create, Contribute and Collaborate 创建-》共享-》协作

当你做完i的教程之后，你应该要把你的PSD文件，素材全部上传，共享给大家。 天哪，这是什么样的一种国际主义精神那，要是发PAPER的作者也这么做的话，那么这个世界进步的进程会加快许多，大家争相采用先进的技术，试图通过ACCOUNTING 和EDITING 来混饭吃的人们将失去他们的饭碗。 可惜应该总是应该，希望总是希望， 开源的思想是好的，但是具体开不开还是结合你自己具体的考虑吧，对于一篇教程来讲，如果有源文件不管怎么样点击的人也会多很多

After you have written the entire tutorial, its upto you to provide a platform for a constructive design community where your readers can use the source images, PSD Files and such stuff and create better results and showcase their work in the community, and of course giving you the necessary credits. This will allow them to work with your original files and learn better. I feel this is something the readers can interact with and contribute to and this would be a great idea for a design blog.

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So, I think that pretty much qualifies to be the rules that has to be followed while writing a tutorial. I cannot say my tutorials always follow the above terms, but if it does, then it will most certainly turn out to be the best. It is a wise approach to incorporate all of the methodologies while writing a tutorial. If you have any good tips that you can add to the list, you are more than welcome to do so.

So, now that you have your tutorial ready, you would want to promote them in all possible ways. One of the best way is to submit them in websites which showcase such tutorials. Well, here I have listed some of the best websites where you can submit your tutorial and which have been of immense help to me in building a better design blog. Here is the list :

下面是一些好的教程网站，列在下面

1) Good Tutorials

This is the one of the best place for submitting your tutorials. Some of the finest Photoshop tutorials are showcased regularly here. The tutorial normally gets reviewed and published within 24 hours. It is quite difficult to get your tutorial accepted but if it does, it will most certainly become a crown puller and you can expect a huge number of traffic to come from this site.

2) Pixel2Life

Another very good Photoshop tutorial website. It is almost similar to Good Tutorials but it takes weeks to get your tutorials accepted but it is definitely worth the wait. A good amount of traffic can also be expected from this site and there are more chances of your tutorials getting accepted here.

Those two are the best place to submit your Photoshop tutorials, without any doubt. Apart from these two, there are several other awesome websites where you can submit your tutorials and expect a decent amount of traffic. Just Click on the images to follow directly to the Submitting page. These are in no particular order:

3) Design Chair

4) Tutorial King

5) Speckyboy - If your tutorial is good enough, it may be published in the Weekly design roundups.

6) Photoshop Lady - Extremely difficult to get accepted but once done, can bring a prolonged traffic

7) Tutorial Magazine

Tutorial9 - You can mail them the details of your tutorial and it may be featured in the Creative bookmark articles that are published at the end of each month.

9) Photoshop Roadmap

10) Tutorial Outpost

11) Tutorials Garden

12) Tutorialized

13) Design Shards

14) Faqpal

15) Design Newz

Well, that was list the website which I think it good enough to publish your tutorials so that many people get exposed to it. There are however, many such websites which offer to showcase quality Photoshop tutorials. Here is a link to an article from 1stwebdesigner. He has collected some of the most reliable sites where you can submit your tutorials. Have a look :

30 Useful Sites to submit tutorials -- 30个有用的提交教程的站点

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So, I hope you found the article useful. I would love to know how you felt reading it. Most of the points were from my standpoint of view, so it is quite agreeable that you may have some indifferences with them. I am open to such opinions and discussions. I would request you to add some of your advice which you think would be a better way to write a tutorial. If there is anything you want me to help you with, please let me know. Thank you!!

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