Since I found this great resource I have been sharing it with everyone I know. And, No, I don’t get a penny for it. Good resources don’t need to pay for advertising….

Lynda.com is an online training program for a huge multitude of software / programs that we as “creatives” use on a daily basis.

I knew of Lynda Weinman from many years ago as she was teaching in the Computer Department at Art Center for a period during my 15+ years of teaching Photography there. Then she started to write “how to” books for a variety of popular software.

I knew she had a web site but thought is was just more for PR.

When Adobe CS3 came out recently I knew I had to migrate from GoLive to Dreamweaver but had never even looked at the Dreamweaver interface. I started to look for classes to learn yet another piece of software.

I was not looking forward to this! In the first place classes were as high as $1200.00!! Secondly .. not bragging.. but I am a fairly quick learner when it comes to things like this. I did not want to sit in a class where inevitably there would be that “one person”.. you know them, bless their heart… they hold up the entire learning process. Be it going off on tangents, needing attention, or simple incapable of “getting it”.

Somehow, I honestly don’t know how, I wound up on Lynda’s site.

WHAT A FIND!!!!

For $25 mo. or $250 yr you have unlimited access to excellent training videos for virtually any popular software you might need as well as videos about other topics – not software specific! Anything from Word to Final Cut. From CS3 to iPhoto.

The courses are very well rounded and done in such a way that you can watch them in succession or just watch a topic that you need. You can even watch the first few lessons of most tutorials without even signing up!!! I initially signed up for one month, but by the time I was through the first couple of chapters on Dreamweaver and saw all of the other programs I had access to I realized I would use this all the time, so I signed up for a full year.

The other day I was working in Photoshop and remembered that there was this new feature in CS3 but forgot how to use it. I signed into Lynda.com, watched 2 mins of a 3 min video and I was back to work!!

I actually watched a few of the lessons on Blogging…

The fact that you can do it at your own pace, whenever you want for as long as you want is the best. You don’t have to block out a Tuesday night. You don’t have to go anywhere. You don’t have to change out of your p.j.’s. You can take 5 mins out of your lunch and watch a lesson!

Check it out! I think you’ll get hooked. (I wish I did get a commission on everyone I send there!! )