My only suggestion is just play with it learning all about it as you go. I have the 6500 and I made a "cheat sheet" so to speak of the actual stiches and have that hanging on my wall in front of my machine. That way I can just look up there to when I need a fancy stitch! Keep a can of air near by to blown out the lint and dust. and always keep the manual at arms length... just in case! I have had to pull that out a couple of times! The best advice would be to be sure to use a surge protector as you would with any computer! I could handle losing my computer to a power surge but NOT my machine! that would be absolutely tragic!