There’s a time and place for video guides. Sometimes they’re really helpful and easier to follow than text guides, but other times text guides are WAY more useful.
I hate it when I need to look up a guide for something that involves coding or text in some way but I can only find video guides. If I were to use a text-based guide, I’d probably scroll past most of the instruction bits and just locate the actual bit of code/text I’m looking for. Then I can copy and paste it easily and do what I need to do. But if it’s a video guide, there are immediately a few problems:
- You can’t skim video guides. Sure you can jump around, but you won’t know what you missed since there are no headings or clearly defined sections. It’s like shooting in the dark.
- You can’t copy and paste. When you finally get to the text/code bit, you have to pause, hope you can read it, and then manually write it out.
- Sometimes you can’t even read the text! This is particularly the case if the video was shot in a low resolution. It might be tiny, pixelated, or just otherwise impossible to read.
And you know what really grinds my gears? When someone releases a video, just to fill it up with text anyway! There’s no video, they’ve just filmed themselves typing the instructions in a Word document or something. What’s the point?!?!
YES. This, on so many levels. I’ve looked up tutorials for a few different things that I wanted to do, but all I could find were video guides and I find that they are repetitive, you have to keep going back and re-watching certain parts, and then sometimes the quality of the video will interfere as well. It’s just an ugh moment all over!
Exactly! And seeking through videos can be a huge PITA. Sometimes you can’t quite get the timing right so you’re actually 30 seconds ahead or behind where you *really* want to be… ugh.
Yes, it totally can be. Right and when you’re trying to search back through the video, sometimes you can’t find exactly what you were looking for in it either. I’d just rather not deal with them, on most accounts.
I usually skip watching the videos and look for text guides, instead. Text over video any day!
Agreed!
Not a big fan of video guides either. I don’t watch them actually. It takes too long to 1) check if it’s going to provide the information I need and 2) get to the information.
Even in written guides, most of the time, I only read the code, which should be self-explanatory. If there’s something I don’t understand, then I have a look at the explanations.
On the other hand, it’s different when you *learn* something. A few years ago (ouch!), I learned Ruby (on Rails) partly on RailsCast. I also followed “Programming Languages” on Coursera by the fantastic teacher Dan Grossman. Both offer high quality video, great teachers, and it was quite worth taking some time watching their videos. But they are teaching video, not really guides.
I don’t know how video are helpful. Plus they get so easily outdated when it comes to software and code!
Yeah I HATE watching a video guide, just to find out that it didn’t even do what I was looking for.
I agree with you about learning. I think it’s fine if you’re taking a course on the topic that you’re interested in and then you watch guides as part of that course. That way at least there’s some kind of curriculum and direction. I think that can be good for general topics (like “learning Ruby” or “understanding PHP”). But if you’re looking into something very specific (like “how to customize the WordPress login page”) then a text guide will probably win every time!
I hate when I have to watch ten minutes of video just to find the answer to a question I would have found in ten seconds if I could have skimmed the text! It makes sense in some instances, e.g. when you want to explain a program and how it’s used, but whyyy make a completely pointless video for everything under the sun? Some people in your audience might not even be able to watch the video for various (technological or physical) reasons. I like when they include a text below the video, so you can still read that if you want.
I know! Video guides just take soooo much longer.
I absolutely abhor video guides. I learn so much better through written word, and it infuriates me when I cannot find text, only video. Like you, I am usually just looking for a small piece of information, and I likely want to copy it, not have to replay a video ten times just to write down what they said to then type it in! Ugh, it doesn’t even make sense! Thanks for letting us air out this grievance 😉
Yeah with video guides you have to pause at the right moment, then squint and hope the video was uploaded in a nice big resolution, then manually copy it down from the screen…
What a PITA!
I find that I have to be in the right mood for video guides which doesn’t always happen. I rarely watch them for webdev tutorials. I definitely prefer text where you can see the code examples clearly. And sometimes people go off an a major tangent on videos when I just want to get to the point.
Ohh yeah, I hate those tangents!
I really dislike video guides. Like you, I prefer to skim to the information that I need and go from there. Don’t get me wrong, there are places for it, but I don’t think coding is one that I would like.
Agreed!
I’m not a big of video tutorials either. I’m very impatience if I want something I need to know it ASAP so it’s frustrating for me to wait. And sometimes they get sidetracked and the video becomes longer than it should. But I love cooking tutorials; it’s visually appealing to see the preparation of the food to finished product to me. xD
Yeah I think cooking tutorials make perfect sense (I’d personally still prefer pictures + text for those, but I can totally see the appeal of video guides in that case).
Text trumps video, but they can be complimentary, I think. Text and video excel in providing information in different ways, not to mention different people are better at absorbing information in different ways.
I think video could best be used as a sort of intro and/or “here’s what the final product looks like.” The text should always serve as the meat of a guide and show you the intricate details.
Not a big fan of video guides to be honest. I like books better, you don’t have to re-watch or stop a book like you have to with a video guide when you’re trying out what you just watched. I looked at some video guides for how to work with Photoshop, because I’m dying to learn how to work with it properly, but video guides suck, I can never quite follow, because I either don’t get it or they talk to fast, not to mention that the screen gets fuzzy sometimes.
So yeah, give me a guide book over a video guide any day of the week. Books are almost always better.
A video tutorial for coding makes NO SENSE! I often really enjoy video tutorials, but foe things that its helpful to see done to understand. I find all videos composed entirely of text to be incredibly annoying. What’s the point?!?!
Ugh, yes. I only like video guides for something like knitting, when I need to see what to do.
Otherwise, text all the way. I think that’s part of the reason I haven’t gotten into booktubing, because I can read a blog post so much faster than watching a video and I can’t skim!
This is something I’ve been wondering about myself. I personally like video guides for certain things because I learn by seeing and doing but I know others aren’t like that. But I wouldn’t like that for code for the reasons you mentioned.
I think the best thing would be to have a text guide alongside the video guide but that’s a lot more work!