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Okay, so perhaps this is a terrible idea, but that tends to be my way. 19 ideas out of 20 that I have are utter shit. It's the 20th one that pays off.

I'm a newbie and I've had just one Hell of a time getting into this hobby so far because of the things I didn't know I didn't know.

I read as many guides as I could and I tried to watch as many videos as I could to learn what was out there to learn at my level, and they did help. Ultimately though, as we get better at picking we start to take certain things for granted. Some things become second nature to us and instinctive, and we forget that at some stage we actually had to think about those things or adjust for them.

These are the things that a newbie should know, but that experienced pickers forget that newbies don't already know.

As a result, I've started writing a newbie guide (as a newbie) so that it will have those subtle, tiny little details in it that don't seem like much, but that add up to a whole lot.

What I'd like, is your feedback.

I've been updating this pretty regularly and will continue to do so, but here's one of the early drafts:

Picking the Newbie - This is a blog that Puc has hacked for us. He's managed to make it so that I can use it as a web book as well as a blog, and he's been amazing. Sandman paid for the site to host it on as well, and for that I am also grateful.

I look forward to your comments and suggestions if you have any.

Perhaps HC/Elbow can start a forum/thread for minor picking tips/tricks that can be amalgamated into a giant list.

Great work. So far so good, thanks for all the work you are putting into it. It will be a great resource for Newbies!!

I completed the section on reading the key and the lock. I added some info about visualizing a lock internally.

I also added a section on choosing the right picks for starting out. If anyone cares to look closely at the last two sections I've just added and give some feedback, I'd appreciate it. Critique is welcome just as much, if not more, than praise.

I get a zip file.. Inside the zip is a bunch of xml files and folders. None of them seem to work.

When the option to save comes up, choose to open it with MS Word.

Alternatively, save it as a word document (.doc) or save it with MS Word.

Pretty good work so far. I saved it as a .doc file and it opened fine in MS word

For those having problems ignore the default .zip extention and it should work.

I have been in locksports for over 15 years and read 100's of guides, books, tutorials etc.

My biggest problem in helping newbies is remembering that what seems so obvious or logical to the experianced picker often is not understood or known by a newbie.

What you are creating can be a big help at bridging the gap between the more experianced and the total beginner.

I think the zip option is being defaulted for most people because of the file size. I've intentionally used a bunch of images in the document, and the originals are very large so that people looking at the images can simply click on them and enlarge them without losing clarity if they want to look closely at something.

This results in a large file size, which many systems will set to default the save as with a .zip because it's large.

The site can definitely handle the regular download however, and in the grand scheme of things this file isn't very big, but the default zip comes up because your computers are trying to compact the download for you. Tell it to stick it and save it as a doc or with MS Word, or just open it with MS Word.

Thank you for the feedback, Abroxis. I appreciate you taking the time to look it over as well as the kind words you offered.

Not sure about the size idea. The file is only 278 k Pretty small really. Changing to a doc file works great as you say.

I looked at your file with hex edit and then I changed a word file I made to a zip extension. The header was the same as yours and WinZip seemed to extract xml in the same way.
I didn't know Word files acted like this. Figured zip would be unable to open it.

This guide seems like a good idea, as abroxis says, you can document your thoughts as you progress and that will help people that are going through the same thing. Keep up the good work. I'm sure it will help...
Most new guys spend a lot of time reading and learning before they feel comfortable posting. It's interesting to hear your ideas as you progress.

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A lot of words would describe me. "Shy" isn't one of them.

I've changed the guide so that it's no longer a Word file.

Thanks to Puc for setting up a web site and posting some blogs for those of us in the Denver area chapter of EaZypickings.com - you did great, Puc!

Here's the new format. Notice that on the top right of that very brief entry there's an option to go to the next entry (in this case, "Step 1: Gear up").

I think I have 5 entries visible so far, because one is still in draft form.

Man i think your on a winner here, i would have done anything to get my hands on a a good "how to" other than the usual guides that were out there at the time. great work man......

Thank you.

I realize there's a lot of fluff in the introduction chapters, but I'm just now starting on the actual "How to" chapters. It starts on step 1-5, and at step 5 starts to get more "nuts and bolts."

Okay, I started on the meat and taters. I broke step 5 down into sub-portions, otherwise it would be the world's largest chapter. I've split it apart and will finish that section soon, I hope. For now I have section 5 (intro) and 5.1: reading the key.

I also updated the disclaimer a bit to make it a slightly better introduction.

A little progress each day I guess.

Feedback welcome as always - critique as well as encouragement.

Link to the blog. I also updated the link in the first post.

I've added a section today, which took an enormous amount of MS Paint mastery.

I've tried to get more into the nuts and bolts as many of you recommended. I think I've done a fairly meticulous (if a bit long-winded) job of that, such that a newbie can actually understand what's being shown, even if they can't sense it immediately themselves. Let me know if you don't get that sense.

Go here and at the bottom of the page there's a link to "Older posts" which you can click on to show you section 5.2: Through the Keyhole.

That's the new section.

Here's the direct link for those that are easily confused or too lazy to scroll down the page to the "Older entries" link.