Love Learning with Lynda.com - Part 2

In Part 1 of this two-part post on Lynda.com, I raved about how useful Lynda.com was and how quickly I have come up to speed on a number of topics, especially the Adobe Creative Cloud product suite.  This post focuses on why I selected the Lynda.com subscription option I did, and also on the why and how I use Lynda.com effectively.

There are two main decisions you need to make when you sign up for Lynda.com.  The first is if you want to sign up on a monthly basis or minimally for one year.  The other is if you want to sign up for just the training videos or for the training videos plus exercise files that you can download.  I decided to pay $37.50 monthly for the exercises in addition to the training videos (which would have cost $25 per month).  The 50% for getting the training exercises is well worth the money!  Not just for learning via the Lynda.com courses, but they also provide useful templates and starting points for work you may want to do personally.

The prices mentioned above are for a month-by-month subscription.  This is the most flexible option if there is only one or two courses you want to take and have the time in a couple of months to complete them.  But with approximately 2,250 training courses available and having to come up to speed on so many many different topics, I decided the sign up for a years subscription.  By doing so, I get a 2-month break on price.  Therefore, I paid $375 for the annual premium (ability to download the exercises) subscription instead of $450.  I knew during the trial period that I would be taking many, many courses over the next several years, so signing up for the annual subscription was an easy choice for me.

Lynda.com training on my iPad

The other great thing about the annual premium subscription is that you can download and watch courses on your iPad (and iPhone or Android tablets).  This was great for me as I could watch courses during any free time I found as I always have my iPad with me.  Additionally by downloading the courses, I can watch them if my wife is 'hogging' our Internet bandwidth without competing with her.  When I am on my laptop, I use the video streaming mode for my courses without any problems.  However, if my wife is uploading or downloading videos (which she does a lot as she has a YouTube channel for makeup videos), then I prefer to use my iPad with previously downloaded training videos and not need to consume any bandwidth.  Therefore, I can continue training even as my wife is doing large movie uploads and downloads!  I have about a dozen courses downloaded to my iPad and watch them every free minute I get.  And all work completed on my iPad and laptop is synchronized, so I can switch between platforms with ease.  (I tend to work more from the laptop if I am following the exercises closely.)

Lynda.com Playlists and status

I also love the Lynda.com Playlists.  These provide me the option to developed a structured training program and keep everything organized.  I have about 50 courses tagged in various training playlists to lead me through my training.  I do not need to search for what do I do next.

Lynda.com is an extremely high quality offering.  I have looked at some of their competitors who charged $19 for a single, much shorter training course and the quality of the videos and screen capture is significantly inferior to Lynda.com.  But what really blew me away is the great support Lynda.com has.  Both during the trial and since, I have had several questions and initial issues with downloading extremely large exercise files successfully (it was a problem with dynamic IP assignment on my laptop) and whenever I asked a question, it was addressed in less than 24 hours with a great deal of attention to detail and the issue.  Their support is amazing!

I continue to use Lynda.com for learning in the areas presented in my many playlists above.  I am happy to be using this learning site for a long, long time.  I am even hoping to become a trainer myself some day!


Steve Shipley
SAZ in the Cellar Facebook page
Twitter: @shipleyaust
My wine blog SAZ in the Cellar
Still Stupid at Sixty (published under my writing pseudonym Blake Stevens)
Steve Shipley Pinterest Boards

Love Learning with Lynda.com - Part 1

I continue to become more self-sufficient as a writer and publisher.  I also am embracing more cloud-based subscription services as part of my street team.  I am now using Adobe Creative Cloud, Evernote, Dropbox, Chicago Manual of Style Online, and Lynda.com for quickly building my skills.

Being an author can be a lonely job.  If you sign on with a traditional publisher, they provide skills to help with editing, technical formatting, publishing and promotion.  I self-published my first book, Still Stupid at Sixty without knowing much at all.  Wrote it in Word, had a friend help edit using Track Changes and used Calibre to convert and upload in Kindle format to Amazon.  My wife and one of her friends helped solve a few technical formatting issues.

But Wine Sense, my current work-in-progress has already taken ten times the effort, will be printed in both physical and electronic format and published in Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, iTunes, Smashwords and Blurb minimally.  Still Stupid at Sixty was only published through Amazon.  Wine Sense also has about 40 photographs, charts, diagrams and other images plus 'fun facts' inserted throughout.  Still Stupid at Sixty had none.  Wine Sense references work from 20 other books and publications requiring significant footnoting, end-noting and bibliography efforts to source other work properly.

I have had a massive learning curve converting to Scrivener as an writing management system, and learning HTML and CSS to provide more control over final output when ePublishing.  I decided enough was enough and needed help with the complexities of laying out format design and typesetting.  I asked someone whose work I had seen before and in total would have charged me about $3,000 to do everything - once!  I was worried about how many changes I might have and how the cost could rise significantly before the project was complete.

During this time, I was exploring taking more control end-to-end over the writing, editing, and publishing process.  No matter how much I researched and analyzed alternatives, I kept coming back to Adobe Creative Cloud as the platform that gave me everything I needed beyond using Scrivener for writing and editing.  It also meant I did not need to spend as much time within Scrivener on structuring and defining the Compile function for final publication.  I could use Scrivener for what it was intended and used InDesign to easily lay out final formatting.

But I knew the Adobe product suite has a major learning curve.  These are very high-end apps that provide you ultimate control to do exactly what you need.  The also require a great deal of training, practice and experience for any of the apps.  I was going to learn InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop all at the same time.  Plus I was still learning HTML, CSS and Javascript, and expanding my Wordpress skills!  And to validate content for my new writing projects on writing processes and technology, I also was now working across both Windows and Mac platforms and learning Mac OS in addition to the new Windows 8 and 8.1.

I signed up for Adobe Creative Cloud and started playing around.  I watched videos from the Adobe Learning channel and YouTube.  I bought some books on using the apps.  Over three weeks, I made virtually no progress at all.  I looked to local technical schools to find some courses, but they cost around $700, where targeted to mass market appeal, and did not provide suitable times or locations for me as I work a full-time job.  I tried finding a couple of tutors, but with little result.  I needed to learn a lot and I needed to learn very quickly.

Then several people over the course of a week, suggested Lynda.com.  I checked it out and was intrigued.  You could sign up for as long as you like, terminate when you like, and take as much training as you can possibly fit in.  They also offered a 7-day free trial to test it out.  I signed up for the trial, but after two days, knew I would be subscribing permanently as the results were far greater than I could have possibly imagined.  I could establish my own training program in a structured manner according to my needs, my level of expertise and in accordance to the time I could spend.  It proved to be the most efficient us of of my time.  Within 6 weeks, I have become proficient with InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator.  Plus I have taken several other courses to improve my overall writing and publishing processes. I was also able to learn some fundamentals for Windows 8 and converting to and using a Mac!

Lynda.com means you learn quickly and  according to your needs, not the needs of a classroom of people, the schools needs or an instructor's needs.  I love Lynda.com and I can tell Lynda.com loves me!  Lynda.com has become a critical part of my writing team and support group!

In Part 2 to be published later this week, I will explain the various options available, and how and why Lynda.com helps you love learning!


Steve Shipley
SAZ in the Cellar Facebook page
Twitter: @shipleyaust
My wine blog SAZ in the Cellar
Still Stupid at Sixty (published under my writing pseudonym Blake Stevens)
Steve Shipley Pinterest Boards

Why I have two office work areas

Every writer has a place to call their own, where they get away to focus on writing without distraction.  Many of us have two or three work places.  And with continued improvements in technology, it is possible to create some pretty special places.

I have a primary work area.  It is a bedroom converted to an office shared by my wife and myself.  It is typical of many writers and other professionals.  I have a desk and office chair, with several book cases nearby.  My desk holds a Windows laptop, 23" monitor and speaker system.  The phone, scanner and printer and NAS are located nearby, but I am connected to them via wifi.  The rest of my desk can be used to write notes, set up my Mac when I need to do something with it, or be a spot to accumulate receipts, brochures and other things until I put them away.  My primary book and blog writing occurs here.

Primary work area

I also have a secondary, portable work area.  It is a comfortable IKEA chair and footstool, with a lap desk, and side table.  I work on my iPad with keyboard and my Mac, and also use it for reading physical books.  These items are easy to move inside and outside as the weather permits.  I attached a small box to my lap desk to hold things such as a pen, yellow marker, Post-it stickies, earphones, small notepad, iPad stylus and glass cleaner.

Portable chair and lap desk on balcony

This is a very relaxed position.  I am more prone, leaning backwards, but perfectly situated for comfortably using the iPad, Mac and reading.  By moving between the two locations, I can work for extended periods of time without cramping.   Changing positions helps to relieve pressure on one set of muscles and joints.  By switching between the two locations, I recover and rest one set of muscles while continuing to use the other.

Yesterday I put in 14 - 15 hours at my main desk, sitting straight up and continuously typing.  The only time away from my desk was to go shopping, carrying heavy things and then putting them away.  Today, I have spent 8 hours at my desk editing.  I took a break to make breakfast, and then another one do some heavy lifting errands and prepare dinner.  I spent a lot of time in the kitchen slicing and dicing food in a similar position to sitting at my desk, putting additional stress on my back.

I now want to work again and write a couple blogs, but was not physically willing to sit at my desk.  This is where my secondary work area comes in.  From my portable chair and lap desk, I usually read, mind map, do social media, research, and read physical books.  I use my primary work area for writing, using Adobe applications, taking training (with exercise files which reside and are used by apps on my laptop), social media and coding.  Initially my primary work area was for writing and data input, while my secondary work area was for reading and research.  But I am currently physically challenged to use my primary work area, yet want to blog.  So I have decided to write my first blog from my iPad and you are reading it now!

With the iPad keyboard, I can type significantly more quickly than when using its touch keyboard. Also via wifi and using cloud-based applications, I am less dependent on my laptop (and main desk) for access to critical apps and data..  I am doing far more writing, editing, note-taking and other things on my iPad and portable lap desk.  I also do substantially more social media from my lap desk. After a few hours at my portable work area, I can go back to my desk and work with the Adobe apps again.

Over the last few months, I have been optimizing my writing workflows, and have significantly increased my productivity.  I have also moved more and more to cloud-based systems which can be suitably utilized across many different platforms.

I started this on my iPad, but have now had to move back to my laptop to finish it off.  I encountered an error with positioning the cursor at the bottom of my blog.  Every time I try that on my iPad, I am positioned at the beginning of my blog post.  Using Blogger on my iPad will not let me get to the bottom of a longer post.  This is unfortunate as I was hoping to have a real success here.  I use Evernote, Dropbox, Acrobat, Safari and Firefox across platforms relatively seamlessly, but there are still some differences and problems.  However, they are reducing as all browsers, operating systems and most apps evolve.  This is the first time I have used Blogger on the iPad for writing a post, so not sure if it is an issue with Blogger, IOS or Safari.  (I am still on IOS 6 and the iPad 2.)

I am certain that I will be able to do more and more across any platform.  But for now, I have favorite things to do based on if I am at my desk using my laptop or at my portable lap desk using my iPad.  My desk is really now defined as what is inside my laptop and iPad, not by what is on my physical desk.

My next few blogs will continue to expand on how I work, what technology I use and how my productivity continues to soar.  Just being able to have a secondary work place I can retreat to allows my to keep working while relaxing one set of muscles and joints!  And the 30 minutes I spent there has recharged me for working at my primary work area again.

Steve Shipley
SAZ in the Cellar Facebook page
Twitter: @shipleyaust
My wine blog SAZ in the Cellar
Still Stupid at Sixty (published under my writing pseudonym Blake Stevens)
Steve Shipley Pinterest Boards