Implement "Take a Tour" for beginners

twhitvine[CodePlex]
What if...
The first time someone installed and used HydroDesktop, a window would pop up offering to take the user on a tour of the software. The tour should include search. So for example, for search, the dialog would say, quotYou can search for data within a certain
area by zooming in to that area. Click the zoom tool and then click in the map to draw a box around the county that you live in.quot

Once the user has zoomed in, the dialog would say, quotGreat! Now tell us what variable you want to search for by typing it in the keyword box in the ribbon.quot

The idea is to guide novice users on the basics of using the software in a step-by-step interactive manner. Otherwise, when users open HydroDesktop for the first time, they might not know what to do next.

This is inspired by quottake a tourquot tutorials that I've seen online. The only one I can think of currently is the new Google Maps, for which you have to receive an invite to use (as of this writing), but I took a short video of their Take a Tour and
posted it here.
http://screencast.com/t/pXV9uLmVg

Note that I'm not an expert on how Take a Tour should be written. This issue is not meant to prescribe the tour and wording I've used in the example above, but rather to suggest that HydroDesktop include some kind of Take a Tour functionality to help new users
get started. Oh, and there should be a quotDon't Show This Againquot check box. Maybe Take a Tour can be a button on the Help tab in case users click to not show it again but decide they need to see it again.

Start by reviewing HydroDesktop's first-use startup flow and the Help tab, since the issue proposes entry points for the tour. Done means a step-by-step beginner tour covers basic use, including search, supports a "Don't Show This Again" choice, and can be reopened from Help.