[Bf-docboard] Feature suggestion: integrated manual

[Kent Mein]

In reply to Landis Fields (landis@landisfields.com):

> Bart,
> I like that idea! I am not sure if any of you have used any of macromedia's  
> products such as MX but it is VERY integrated...maybe Blender should not go
> quite THAT far but it would be nice to also have an option maybe to "take a
> Blender tour". This could open up a window where the interface is
> informative but interactive (hover over or click on a button and it would
> give you an indepth discription of that button...basically information
> extracted from the manual itself). Another idea is closer to that used by
> Macromedia....a simple project would be generated before the users eyes
> (preferably a biginner project similar to the quick start available on the
> official Blender 2.0 guide...something short and sweet) This would be very
> beneficial for beginners. Just an idea.

I like the the idea of the interactive links to the guide.
Not so sure on the quickstart bit.  Kind of bloat for the program.

In fact I think http://www.blender3d.org/Education/ does a great job of
providing the basics for a new user.  I think the big issue for new people
is where do I go for stuff, I think the content is there its just
the message out there makes it seem like things aren't very organized.

Not sure if Ton is on this list or not, and or if this is the "right" place
for this but anyway...
I've been thinking maybe we should move the top web sites to the following:
Anyway it sort of seems like old users all goto: http://www.elysiun.com/
And developers of course goto: http://www.blender.org 
I think that all the people looking for info about blender or at least
a lot of them tend to goto http://www.blender.org
Anyway to cut to the chase, maybe we should move the content on 
www.blender3d.org to www.blender.org and move the current developer stuff
to www.blender3d.org and or something new like blender.developer.org

Or alternately we just need to get a big push for everyone telling
them the site for blender is www.blender3d.org period...
Developers and whatnot can find their way from there ;)
Everything seems clear if you start there, its just that I think most people
start at www.blender.org instead and the links back to the main site are not
very straight forward if you have never been to the site.

I could be wrong since I've been off in my own little world with the source
and what not, seems like forever since I last used the program for anything
other than testing bugs.  Personally I think www.blender.org would be a better
name for the main site since we have both ;)

Kent
-- 
mein@cs.umn.edu
http://www.cs.umn.edu/~mein