In a previous article I described the abundant tutorials and tips Apple supplies online for their various software products. In this article I’ll examine two other ways Apple provides learning tools for their software.

Resources

Apple’s resources pages contain numerous links to information on a particular product. This can be information both inside and outside of Apple.

A typical resources page may list downloads available for the product, Apple support/discussion forums, third-party web sites, upcoming seminars, third-party books, links to PDF manuals, etc.

If you own any of the products below I’d suggest peeking at the resource page for it at least once.

• Final Cut Express
• Logic Express
• Aperture
• Final Cut Studio
• Final Cut Server
• Shake
• Logic Studio

Finally, Apple has resource pages under the much broader categories of Business and Pro users. But Apple’s categorization is not exact (there’s some overlap), and I’ve found useful information on both sites that applies even to me, Mr. Normal User. I’ll bet they’re worth a look for you, too.

Free Online Seminars

Apple has a Seminars and Events page where you can search for seminars coming to your area, and then register online to attend.

In this article, however, I’m going to assume that you want to learn from the comfort of your own home. Maybe you don’t live near most of the seminar locations. Or maybe you just prefer learning at your Mac. Or maybe it’s 3am and you just want to learn something now, darn it!

From the Seminars page just click Seminars Online to get a list of those available. It begins with a list of categories for the online seminars.

Click any category to see the seminars available.

Now just click a seminar to get a description, an explanation of what you’ll learn, the Mac requirements you’ll need to view the seminar, and a link to register.

If you’re still interested, click the link to register and follow the prompts. You’ll need to login with an Apple account, which you already have if you’ve ever ordered from Apple online or have an iTunes account. Otherwise you can create one.

Obviously, the online seminars do not provide the same level of usefulness you’d get from attending, say, a half-day class onsite, but I’ve found them interesting for the products I use and gained an insight or two. They’re free and can be watched at your leisure; you have nothing to lose here.

With all the tutorials, tips, resources and seminars freely available from Apple’s site, it’s clear they’re striving to help users make better use of, and get the most out of, their software to produce better work or just to save time. All these learning tools are just waiting for you take advantage of them.

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