Originally Posted by sgardner
My good friend purchased a copy of EQ7 as a gift, but I am struggling with playing with it.
I know what you mean. As much as I love EQ, I will be the first to admit that it is NOT very intuitive and the learning curve can go just about vertical, at times.
Have you watched all the videos that are built in to the program? They might make little sense to you the first time you see them, so watch all of them and then go back and watch them again.
The help files are enormous, but unfortunately, you do have to know what term or phrase to search for - or else a search of the help files is less than helpful. ;) Sometimes, I know what I want to do, but I can't figure out what EQ calls it - and when I finally do find it, I can't imagine why it's called that and why it can't come up in a simple search in plain language.
There are lots of sections in the Help files - I like the "How Do I" bits - just pick some at random and read them. If nothing else, you'll find out something you can use later on.
I just decided today to get the book out of the box and see what's in there. Usually, the book is just a printed version of what's in the help files, but that might not be the case. Maybe the book is more like the lesson book I just finished, in which case, I will actually learn some stuff.
Don't give up, though - I do know that it can be frustrating - if it's not the hardest program I've ever tried to learn, it's probably close to it. :?
Hang in there and keep playing with it = you'll get it! :)
I just posted a pattern I made in EQ in the free section the other day - I think it's the first one I've made "from scratch." You can see a picture of it on that thread.
I saw a cowboy boot wallhanging and I loved the idea, but I wanted the boot to look more realistic, so I drew it in EQ's Easy Draw. (It's nothing really special - I only point it out to show that when I first started with EQ, I was pulling my hair out at times, but now I can draw blocks from scratch and design a quilt top from them.)
Stick with it. If you have problems with something specific, you can always ask here and someone will help you. :)