No program is foolproof, Base Camp for sure is not

Once upon the time, I needed money very very much, and when I was asked if I would could create for them a Invoice Program on an Apple II of a cloth distributor company, I was send to teach, I said "yes!" 

Invoice? Apple II ? Programming? I had no idea of either of them. I hoped, I can learn. I did know a bit about computers, and learned some Basic a few month before. Instead of 1 month, it took me six month, but at my surprise, at the end it worked! 

But one Sunday morning, brrrr, I was called "Come to see, the computer crashed, the program does not work any more!" Sunday morning? 

OK, I went to the company and the Secretary was on phone with a friend. Why did my program crash? Why did it crash? Finally, she told me "I was entering the names and invoice numbers, while a friend called me" and... she pushed "Return" without adding a NAME. I did not say in my program "if NAME="" then" did not think name could be empty! 

Next week I went back for a few days and added a lot of "If xxx then yyy" everywhere in the program. Two years later, I met the Owner of the company and he greeted me with a huge smile "We still make the invoices with your program!" I could hardly believe it!

Pathways Base Camp is far from "fool proof" and I learned last week that a very clever Toastmaster, my not understand even how to Launch, open her Path! First, I believed it was because on Macintosh she used Chrome and not Safari. Then she shared her screen, opened in through Safari. And to my surprise, she clicked on the project name Team Collaboration. Same for the Understanding your leadership Style and not on Launch.

Clicking on the Path Name: normal - not? For her, it was the normal way to open. Instead of click in middle of Launch as I usually do. I never tried that! Before. Seeing a button, Activate, Launch, Curriculum, etc on the right, I opened from their middle. 

This morning, I tried. Clicked on a Project title. It took me, instead of opening the "Curriculum" to Training Details. Ouch! How to get back? At least, I did know how it should look! Like above, and click not on arrow which opens as you see different "views" but in middle of the Activate, then Launch Button, at the right of the title.

All the way down, I found a button Back which did bring me indeed back to usual view! 

And when I did click on the Path "Team Collaboration" instead of the Launch, I got this with a button "Launch Curriculum Player" all way up, that let me bounce back! 

Never seen this button before, but it IS there for us. To go back from where we come, even if once it is "Back" other time is "Launch Curriculum Player"

Till this morning, I did not know that we use "CURRICULUM PLAYER" to open our Paths and Projects! So many ways to go --- well, if not wrong, different. Some times, it may be useful to see all that is there for us, different types they are called, and so on. Many mysteries of Base Camp, even for me who thought "I know all".

I felt finally "home" when I got back to the Base Camp "usual" and there where "only two ways" to open my Educational Transcript. Down, the titles I opened lately. I neglect it and instead, "usually" just open the blue rectangle My Educational Transcript. It does open the Active "all kind" but one click and I choose instead Curriculum. Back to my paths! The usual, is the easier for any of us. Fast, I go to one of my Path and from there a Level I am working and there, to the Project. All usually with the Launch clicked in the middle.

I felt "home" again!

Reading my assignment and even opening - in another tab - my Project Checklist. At the bottom of any Project Checklist there is now the advice "after finished all the task, go and answer the Self Assessment - After Questions." Even, if it did not explain that that is how we signal to Base Camp, "project done". For long time, I did not open the Project Checklist, even it can be found in two places in any project, because after closing it, it did take me back to the Base camp root, till I found out that I can work with tabs. 

A long post this morning, I hope I did not confuse you more then I would want, one thing to retain: we can bounce back from whatever we do. Even in Base camp!