Tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm Eastern is the next episode of the Church IT Podcast, hosted on TalkShoe by Jason Powell, the King of Church IT (if you were at the Fall Church IT Roundtable last year where I accidentally coined that nickname, that joke might be funny :-) Don’t miss it if you can make it (I’m not sure if I’ll be there or not, unfortunately I may not have the opportunity this time). There is still the option to download a “Classic” Java client for TalkShoe chat, but they just introduced a new Web version that does not require a download ahead of time and looks more like an IRC chat window. It’s in alpha but looks nice; you can use either one you want.

Speaking of chat, if every two weeks is just too long to wait for the Podcast, you can jump in to the IRC chatroom “24/7 CITRT Roundtable” set up on the Freenode server (IRC, or Internet Relay Chat, has been around forever, or just about, in internet terms, but is not quite as common as it used to be). Justin Moore posted a couple of excellent posts talking about the #citrt chat room and about how to use IRC. He also links to Jeffrey Thompson’s screencast demonstrating graphically how to install the ChatZilla Firefox extension and join in the chat. If you’re a Church IT person, you need to be in there at least from time to time and build your network of geek friends while sharing technology tips!

So, there’s three ways you can get involved in the Church IT community without giving the seat of your chair the opportunity to rebound from your butt imprint. Go!

I do think that in some cases, instructions could be improved if they were divided up with different emphasis. So high-level stuff would be large and in one style, with the smaller steps broken down in a smaller area for those that needed them. Most instructions do use a table of contents and/or headings to do something like this, but I think adding levels could in some cases help. For example:

Typing Text in the Eye Dee Ten Tee Program

For ID10Tsnovices or advanced users :-)

• Big Main Heading
  • Creating a document
    1. Push the button
       • First, hold your finger in front of the circle (aka “button”) in the center of the case.
       • Move your hand forward, depressing the circle with said finger until you hear and feel a click.
       • Remove finger from button.
    2. Wait
       • Wait until the screen in front of you has finished turnng on
       • Continue to wait until there are little pictures on the screen.
    3. Open “Eye Dee Ten Tee” program
       • Find the picture (aka “icon”) on the screen in front of you that says “Eye Dee Ten Tee” (this would be a good place for a screenshot)
       • Move the mouse to the picture you found in the previous step.
         • (more inane steps here on how to move the mouse, what is a mouse, etc.)
       • Press the button on the mouse to begin using the said program
         • (more inane steps here on how to click a mouse?)
       • Wait until you see a blank white area on the screen with text at the top saying “ID10T” with a blinking cursor below that text.
    4. Type your text
       • Move your hands to the keyboard so your left index finger rests on the “F” key and your right index finger rests on the “J” key
       • Make sure your other fingers rest on the keys they naturally line up with in this position.
       • Move your fingers so one finger at a time depresses the key corresponding to the next letter in succession of the word(s) you desire to display on the screen.
    5. Print the text
       • (lots more steps here to print the text so the user doesn’t have to save the document somewhere that they would forget anyway becuase you haven’t explained directory structures yet)
  • More high-level steps here

I could continue ad nauseum, but I hope you get the idea already, and I think I’ve had way too much fun with my little demonstration exercise :-D Basically, more advanced users use the numbered steps and ignore the substeps, while novices can go at a slower pace with the detailed steps. And the occasional advanced user can refer to the detailed instructions when they get lost. Note the use of bold style and font sizes (i reserved italics for editorial comments, in this case) to visually separate the varying levels of steps to make this easier. Also note the lack of visual aids becuase I’ve already spent way too much time making this silly example to bother with graphics.

(Disclaimer: My instructions above are not complete and there are several obvious glaring holes where more steps need to be added to remain consistent with the level of detail provided. But unless I can get credit for this as my manual, it’s not worth the time nor the effort!)

(Warning: The above instructions are for entertainment purposes only and I disclaim any and all liability arising from the use or misuse of the above instructions regardless of the intentions of the user, or the orientation of the moon in relation to the earth and sun.)

(Warning: This example also serves as an example of a procrastination technique for avoiding credit-bearing projects. Doing the same is not recommended. You should really do the school work itself and turn it in early. But IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer) and you should consult your own and not consider this a legal opinion in any way, shape, form, or point of fact.)

There are some really cool things I’m seeing both in and out of the Church IT specialty in my feed reader, even though I’m lurking. I’ll be at Jason Powell’s Roundtable next month, and possibly at the national CITRT in Kansas City in early October, but that’s still to be determined. If at all possible, I’ll be at both! As sad as it would be to spend time away from our new house we’ll have only been in for half a month! Not to mention my wife — we’ve never spent a night under separate roofs since we got married in 2005, and our second anniversary is in October. Fortunately, it’s not the 3rd or 4th! :-D