>Not to argue the point, as I use both video's and text help, but there is one other thing going on here.
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>The "new generation" really uses sites like YouTube to learn how to use stuff (some very technical stuff), so they are really use to video's. Perhaps most of us "over" 40 don't quite get this yet - I am even surprised. I just met with a good friend of my son who Duke University brought in who is a specialist in this area of video training. Evidently it is only going to get bigger.

I have a problem with most of these videos, in regards of amount of time devoted to various pieces of the matter presented. They seem to take too long to introduce things, specially the GUI - sometimes just wasting time navigating through the menu over and over again, explaining elementary stuff. Many times I find myself in fast forward mode, i.e. jumping ahead to when there's something I don't already know. And then there's about ten seconds on the interesting stuff, on the very reason I'm watching this. So... I generally don't watch them.

Even with modern videos, with thumbnail sort-of-index preview, it's hard to guess where to jump. Screen thumbnails all look alike. It's not like the regular youtube video which is not video, because it consists of just cover sheets or a slideshow - I hover over the slider, see that there's nothing to see, ctrl+w. With instructional videos for software, no such luck.

Another reason is the sound. I have to stop my music, then play the video, then remember to resume the music. Most of the time I watch the videos without sound, for this very reason (and so I don't hear the annoying jingles, singing intonations of sentences, reporters' language etc etc). If anyone knows of a plugin for Firefox which will automate this - stop my Foobar, play the video - resume Foobar, let me know. That's the other useful app I'd want to have for this year.