I have been in high tech work all my life. First in TV, then in Photography and photo finishing, then Computers and back to TV. One of the ways I always trained people to operate equipment was to
- Sit down and read the manual without having the equipment there
- Sit down with the equipment and read the manual and put hands and eyes on each part/operation as you read,
- Now go through and do each operation as you read the manual
- Now do each operation without the manual
One I always added to the people I trained was to now go through and show me how to operate the piece of equipment. Teaching someone else always helps you to actually know it better yourself.
I still do this today for new gear. With a camera or some of the software we use you are not going to know it all before you actually start so start with the basics and follow the steps and work on it till you get it to be second nature and then move on to the next level till you are a master. I have not gotten to that point yet. i still pick up the book on the D7100 and read through it and occasionally will see something that I did not know and find I really can use it,