Moving a business to ubuntu, need some advice

[basnetwork]

Hello all. New poster, long time reader.

I am not sure about where to post this question, so if this in the wrong place, let me know please.

I have been taking care of a small business for many years with the 3 windows boxes and 2 laptops. Recently one of the laptops went on a trip and came back with a bug, once it was returned home to the network, it made the rest of the windows boxes sick. The owners of the business asked about switching over to Linux, since I have been using it for years on my computers and always bragging it up, they wanted to make the jump as this was not the first time they had had the windows virus and spyware issues.

So, we have started the process of changing over. First person we changed is the owner and his Gateway laptop. Everything went very well, all the documents are working and all hardware is detected and running great, then the server was swapped over and again 100% perfect, no problems, and the rest of the boxes followed.

So my question is this. The owner is finding it difficult to find and save documents he creates in OpenOffice. He is fine using the office suite, just confused about the file structure and where to put and find things. I put all his files in his home folder with sub folders and labeled each one with logical names like Spread Sheets and Documents and so on...

Now, his windows machine was a mess, he had files all over the place with no rhyme or reason, but it worked for him, well kind of, he alway was calling for help where to find things. So I cleaned it up to a logical order IMO. but he claims he can not find the folders when trying to save work. When I use it, I have no trouble at all, but then again I set it up, so...

Does anyone have any suggestion as to making things easier for him? Or maybe point me in a direction that has some good visual training recourse? I am running out of ideas, so anything you may think will help I would really appreciate.

Thank you all in advance.

[blakjesus]

I'm no expert, but you could tell him to use the /home/[user]/Documents folder to put his stuff in; or you could enable indexing which will allow him to instantly find the files he needs. Just go to System -> Preferences -> Search and Indexing. He will be able to search to find the file he wants and its instantanious. One of my favorite reatures!

[stinger30au]

give him a pice of paper and a pen

sit behind him so you can see the screen

now get him to open the application he wants to run and type a text sentence like

the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs


and tell him to save it

get him to write down on the paper what to do, as well as tell him what to do and get him to do it cos he as it the pc

so now he is getting taught 4 times at once, hearing, seeing, doing, writing,

next time he wants to save stuff, he reads his piece of paper and follows the steps

wont take long and he will be a master at it and wont need the paper

[basnetwork]

Hmmm... I never thought about doing the indexing or sitting next to him and making him write it down... Both som great ideas. I am the worst teacher in the world, so I am thankful of these tips. I'll give them a try.

Thanks
BAS

[markbuntu]

Always make the person operate the machine and explain to you what they are doing while they do it. Play dumb. Do not tell them what to do. Do not interrupt them.

After they do their thing, ask them what they think they did wrong if it did not work and then, after they explain, suggest to them to try something that might be a way to solve their problem. Have them do it. Each step and explain to you what it does. Do not interupt them. Do not be impatient. Ask questions whent they get stuck.

Be patient and let them do all the work and the thinking.
This is how you get people to change how they do things.

It is psychological warfare and you are the ninja.

[Herman]

Something I find handy is the 'Search for Files' program.
I just right-click in my top panel and click 'Add to Panel', and scroll down to the 'Search for Files' icon and add that to my top panel.
It's quite simple to use and can be very helpful, especially if the user can remember at least part of the file's name.

[basnetwork]

Something I find handy is the 'Search for Files' program.
I just right-click in my top panel and click 'Add to Panel', and scroll down to the 'Search for Files' icon and add that to my top panel.
It's quite simple to use and can be very helpful, especially if the user can remember at least part of the file's name.

I just tried doing this, and yes, this works great! Thank you!