File Exchange Pick of the Week

November 6th, 2006

More mini videos: Handle graphics and Shortcuts

 People have really enjoyed the videos that I have been posting here, so I have made a few more. I am trying to figure out if this is a good way of learning MATLAB. I would also like to know how to make these videos available when you need them.

I would really appreciate it if you would let me know in the comments or e-mail your thoughts on the following:

Preferred length of videos: Short (< two minutes), medium (five to ten minutes), extended (twenty plus).

Preferred distribution: YouTube, Blog, File Exchange, download them all as a package, incorporated into documentation, incorporated into product.

If MATLAB could recognize when you are using a command that has associated video supplements and non-intrusively let you know that it was available, would you be interested in watching more videos like these? Making Shortcuts:

Handle Graphics:

By Doug Hull

10:43 UTC | Posted in Cool feature, Video | Permalink |

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14 Responses to “More mini videos: Handle graphics and Shortcuts”

  1. Michel Slivitzky replied on November 6th, 2006 at 12:09 UTC :

    It is an excellent idea. These mini-videos couls be really helpful to learn MATLAB. My suggestions:
    - length up to 5 minutes
    - download as a package

    Michel

  2. Marcelo replied on November 6th, 2006 at 16:39 UTC :

    My suggestions:
    -Youtube
    -length up to 5 min also

    Marcelo

  3. Paramesh replied on November 6th, 2006 at 19:39 UTC :

    Hi Doug,

    The videos are very useful! I learnt about the profiler and the shortcut features of MATLAB right away as soon as I knew about your videos!

    My suggestions:

    1. About 5 mins., 2. YouTube.

    Keep up the great work!

  4. Markus replied on November 7th, 2006 at 04:00 UTC :

    Nice videos, even for experienced programmers. My suggestions:

    - Keep videos very short, up to a maximum of 2 minutes. If you want to cover a longer topic, split them up into several short videos. I would not have the time to view a whole video of 5 minutes length during work. You could also make a short video with an overview of the contents of a longer video - if that is not too much work :-)

    - Categorize videos like “for beginners”, “tips and tricks”, “tweaks” or something linke that - unless they are not all falling into the same category.

    Regards,
    Markus

  5. Mark Brandon replied on November 7th, 2006 at 09:04 UTC :

    I would agree with Markus (comment 4).
    Thanks Doug, great work.

    Mark.

  6. Kyung-suc replied on November 9th, 2006 at 01:18 UTC :

    Hello Doug,

    I think this is a very good way to present tutorial materials. As for the answers to your question, under 5 minutes and YouTube.

    Thanks.

  7. Richard replied on November 9th, 2006 at 11:21 UTC :

    Doug,
    Good idea. What software are you using to make these videos?
    Rich

  8. Doug replied on November 9th, 2006 at 11:24 UTC :

    Rich,

    I use Camtasia to make the software.

    Doug

  9. Gorden replied on November 9th, 2006 at 21:28 UTC :

    The mini videos are an excellent learning aid.
    1. Not more than 5 minutes, the shorter the better.
    2. Depending on storage on your server, one you could create an archive of each mini video and users can have an option to download specific choices. It also removes the need to be tied to an application from a specific vendor (which is way IMHO YouTube is not so good an idea).

  10. Jøger Hansegård replied on November 13th, 2006 at 09:52 UTC :

    Videos are great, but I suspect youtube is being blocked by several company firewalls. At least that’s the case at GE.

  11. Doug replied on November 13th, 2006 at 09:58 UTC :

    Interesting. I never thought about blocking.

    I have another plan for my next video. I will be hosting here at The MathWorks.

    Thanks for the information.

  12. Nick Cheilakos replied on November 17th, 2006 at 21:08 UTC :

    Excellent idea.

    About 5 min .download as a package

  13. Betty replied on December 12th, 2006 at 20:18 UTC :

    I’d love a download package.
    My company must be blocking YouTube also. I can’t see it at all at work. I can access it at home, but it’s frustrating - I’m still on a dial up at home - I can get the video but it’s five words and a 10 second pause. I also can’t run MATLAB at home to test out what I’m seeing in the video while I’m seeing it. Are the videos available anyplace besides YouTube?

  14. Doug replied on December 15th, 2006 at 16:46 UTC :

    Betty,

    I just added “YouTube blocked?”links after each video that goes to a mirror on MATLAB Central servers. These do not have the cool preview and take longer to start streaming, but you should be able to view them. Also, you can just go to this URL http://blogs.mathworks.com/images/pick/POTW/ to get to the files directly for download.

    Doug

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