Overview of the Authoring Process

1. Onboarding and preparing

• You’ll meet 1:1 with your Community Manager to discuss tutorial topics, get familiar with the Tutorial Builder, and go over schedules.
• Think through the sections, steps, notes, and assets you plan to include and how you’ll organize the tutorial. 
• Prepare the tutorial assets per the Asset guidelines and Image specs for the product. Having these prepared beforehand will increase your efficiency in creating the tutorial. 

2. Creating your tutorials

• Work through the screens of the Tutorial Builder, following the on-screen instructions for uploading the assets and creating the tutorial. 
• You should preview your work as you create it. 
• Don’t click Submit in the Tutorial Builder until you’re finished creating the tutorial. Once you submit you can’t make changes until your Curator returns the tutorial to you.

3. Editing your tutorials

• Your assigned Curator will review the tutorial, and the system will notify you by email whether your tutorial is approved or needs changes. Requested changes will be detailed in your Author Brief.

4. Getting help

• If you need help as you’re creating a tutorial, click Save at the top of Tutorial Builder to preserve your work while you’re resolving your question.
• Consult the products' article on Create a tutorial and Examples of common coach marks.
• If you’re still stuck, contact your Community Manager for help. The Community Manager’s contact information is at the top of your Author Brief.

Authoring in Photoshop

Understand the structure of a guided tutorial

Here is an overview of how a tutorial is structured from the user and author’s perspective.

What end-users will see

• Guided tutorials are hands-on tutorials that users work through in Photoshop on their computers. Tutorials consist of step-by-step coach marks and a panel called the Discover panel.
• Coach marks are the building blocks of the tutorial. They contain the bulk of the instruction. Coach marks point to parts of the interface and guide users through what to do and why.
• The Discover panel is home base for users. Here they browse and launch tutorials, view their progress through the tutorial, and view any Notes you provide.

What you will build

Sections, Steps, and Notes are the components of your tutorial. Below is an overview that explains how a tutorial is structured 

• Sections: Tutorials are made up of sections, which are organizational tools for grouping related steps. 
  • Think of a section as a topic that summarizes what users will accomplish by performing the steps in that section. 
  • Example: Make a selection
• Steps: Each section contains one or more steps. Each step is the text on one coach mark. 
  • Example:
    • Select the Object Selection tool.
    • Drag over the car to select it.
    • Shift+drag over parts of the car you missed to add them to the selection.
  • Action steps: Most steps contain an action. 
    • Action steps should contain the actions you want the user to do and also the outcome or “why” of the action.
      • Example: Drag over parts of the car you missed to add them to the selection.
    • Try to limit each step to one action, although sometimes you may have to include more than one.
      • Example: Click the Create new adjustment layer icon and choose Hue/Saturation.
      • Example: In the center of the Layer Styles dialog, set Opacity to 50%, Spread to 10%, and Size to 120 px. Click OK.
  • Non-action steps: If you run out of room for the why or outcome in an action step, you can follow with an occasional non-action step that contains that information.
    • Example: Notice the bent arrow icon on the XYZ layer. It tells you that the layer is now clipped to the layer below.
• Notes: Used only for troubleshooting “gotchas”.

Add taxonomy tagging

Adobe learning content isn’t as easy to find as its users need it to be. Adding metadata (AKA: tags) is a way to improve this experience. Taxonomy tagging draws on your expertise to assign the most appropriate tags to specific pieces of content. This will help train software that can do it automatically in the future.

• What you’ll do
  • Your role is to select the most relevant tags for the content you author. It’s important to carefully consider all available tags for each category. You’ll be able to search tags.
• What are tags
  • Tags are words or short phrases associated with particular pieces of content. They’re a kind of metadata that helps identify articles, making it easier to search for them. A tag can describe who the content is for, such as a beginner or advanced user, what it’s about, like painting or photo editing, or any other important information that helps identify the contents of the article — tasks performed, tools used, etc.

Note: For more information on how to tag in the In-App Tutorial builder, go here. For more information on knowing which tags to choose, go here.

Authoring in Illustrator

Understand the structure of a guided tutorial

Here is an overview of how a tutorial is structured from the end user’s and author’s perspectives.

What users will see

Guided tutorials are hands-on tutorials that users work through in Illustrator on their computers. Tutorials consist of a Discover panel
 and coach marks. 

The Discover panel is home base for the End User. Here they browse and launch tutorials, view their progress through the tutorial, and consume whatever additional information you provide. 

Coach marks are the building blocks of the tutorial. They contain the bulk of the instruction. Coach marks point to parts of the interface and guide users through what to do and why.

What you will build

Sections, Steps, and Notes are the components of your tutorial.

• Sections: Tutorials are divided into distinct sections that appear in the Discover panel one at a time. Each Section consists of a numbered list of Steps and Notes and may contain a single static image or MP4 video as a visual aid. 
  • Think of a section as a topic or user milestone that summarizes what users will accomplish by performing the steps in that section. 
  • Example: The first section in an introductory tutorial, “Getting started with text” might be titled “Adding a heading.”
• Steps: The numbered list of actions to complete in a Section to advance in the tutorial. Try to limit each step to one action.
  • Example: The “Adding a heading” section in the preceding example might have three steps:
    • Select the Type tool.
    • Click in the specified area of the asset.
    • Type new text to replace the placeholder text.
• Notes: Additional information pertaining to a particular Step.

Add taxonomy tagging

Adobe learning content isn’t as easy to find as its users need it to be. Adding metadata (AKA: tags) is a way to improve this experience. Taxonomy tagging draws on your expertise to assign the most appropriate tags to specific pieces of content. This will help train software that can do it automatically in the future.

• What you’ll do
  • Your role is to select the most relevant tags for the content you author. It’s important to carefully consider all available tags for each category. You’ll be able to search tags.
• What are tags
  • Tags are words or short phrases associated with particular pieces of content. They’re a kind of metadata that helps identify articles, making it easier to search for them. A tag can describe who the content is for, such as a beginner or advanced user, what it’s about, like painting or photo editing, or any other important information that helps identify the contents of the article — tasks performed, tools used, etc.

Note: For more information on how to tag in the In-App Tutorial builder, go here. For more information on knowing which tags to choose, go here.