The Best Free Training

Adobe’s PDF document format is everywhere! PDF stands for “Portable Document Format” and its used by publishers to distribute eBooks, user manuals, course study guides, and all sorts of documents. PDFs may be downloaded and displayed on computers, ebook readers, and many other hand-held devices.

Since most computers come with the free Adobe Reader software, almost everyone is able to view PDFs as soon as they turn on their device.  However, if you use Adobe’s free Reader software to view these documents, you won’t be able to make changes or annotations.

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(Above: A Sample eBook Page Annotated by PDF XChange Viewer)

Enter Tracker Software’s amazing free software, PDF-XChange Viewer.

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Topic: Overview of Windows 7 Professional Features
Format: Web-based training with text, screen shots, and comparison table (free registration required)
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com

Have you been wondering if its time to switch to Windows 7? This tight little mini-course from the HP Learning Center can help you decide. According to the website: “This quick lesson is designed for small business owners and their employees all around the world.”

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Topic: Overview of iPad hardware & how to use the iPad
Format: 11 Flash & Quicktime Videos (brief, approx. 3 minutes each)
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com

This nice, tight collection of 11 short video tutorials will help you learn how to use your new iPad. Or, if you haven’t purchased one yet, it will give you an in-depth tour of Apple’s groundbreaking new device so you can figure out if you really want one… and what you might do with it!

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Topic: How to use Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
Format: Web-based introductory tutorials and more
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com

Have you been avoiding any of these great free social media tools because you can’t figure out where to start? Or, worse, have you signed up for them and find yourself clicking around aimlessly, wondering how to use them to accomplish your goals? Then it’s about time you for you to become more systematic in your self-teaching approach and take advantage of some of the free online training and info available for these products.  In this post, we’ll briefly review some of these resources.

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Topic: Technical and not-so-technical info & how-to guides to help WordPress bloggers
Format: Website with many, many videos and blog posts
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com

WordPress is an open source (i.e., free) blog publishing application. And it’s also one of the most popular tools used by bloggers everywhere. Both of my blogs, The Best Free Training and Inspired Project Teams, have the powerful engines of WordPress running underneath their hoods. (Each of these blogs has a different “look and feel,” since each uses a different “theme” or layout/design scheme. But both are operational thanks to WordPress.)

WordPress is also a community of hard-working and dedicated folks who create, maintain, and help each other use the many tools and add-on stuff that has grown up around this amazing application. And, as if it’s not enough that these dedicated people keep WordPress running & free, they have now launched a giant collection of free video resources for all us WordPress bloggers.

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Topic: Overviews of technology-related topics, finance, and more
Format: Website featuring ultra-brief (under 5 minutes!) videos that are uniquely animated, fun, and filled with big ideas.
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com

So how much content can you cram into 5 minutes (or less) of video…. and still have powerful, clear explanations? You can see for yourself at the amazing Common Craft website! It’s recently been completely reworked and has a great, easy-to-use new interface.

If you want tight (and fun) little explanations of all sorts of complex topics, then you gotta check this site. And if you are a video producer or a trainer, you need to see what these guys are up to! They set the bar very high indeed for quick, clean, efficient, and effective training tools!

I’m a big fan of Common Craft and have reviewed several Common Craft videos on this blog in recent months. And they are all amazing, fun, and information-packed.

You’ll find links to my past reviews, as well as a complete list of all Common Craft videos available at the website, below:

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Topic: Directory of free e-books on all topics
Format: Website taking the form of a well-organized directory with summary descriptions of free ebooks and links to downloads
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com

From the website:  “E-Books Directory is a free web resource which contains links to free downloadable e-books, technical papers, documents, as well as user contributed content, articles, reviews and comments. E-Books Directory is a service to students, researchers and e-book lovers.”

This is a great resource for self-directed learners! Read my summary below the line…

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