autocad beginner

Well ... what do you expect to use it for? What do you hope to accomplish with it? ___

Depends on the kind of person you are. I started with a hardcover manual, and some fairly complete drawings to dissect.
What are they offering for sale where you are? The choices are usually few.

I have had two periods when I was a serious AutoCAD user. One was a job as an engineer, I was given a copy of AutoCAD 10 and a 1" thick photocopy of the manual. First job was cleaning up some drawings that a contracted draftsman had managed to screw up.
Now, I work in technical translation, and had a project where a customer needed over 1000 drawings translated into Spanish. I didn't need all the features, but I was concerned that my customer might use something that other software couldn't duplicated, so I purchased AutoCAD LT. The manual for that is almost useless, and the online help isn't a whole lot better. I got a lot of help from another guy I was working with, who used to be a draftsman.
AutoCAD LT was the right decision for me at that time. I understand that my version (2000) was one of the better ones as far as compatibility with older versions, both reading and writing, and that has been helpful dealing with several customers since then.
But If I needed drawings for personal use, and didn't have to send them to an AutoCAD user, I think I just get IntelliCAD.

As others have said what is it you need to accomplish? Are you learning CAD because you want to work in the field or have you taken a job and need to learn AutoCAD.
One of the best ways is to learn cad is to take a course on it. There are many vendors who teach autocad, some of them use a rapid fire method you are in class for a week, and then you are on your own. Others have forty or so hourse over several weeks, and you get time to play with the software in class. Sometimes an employer has a good in house program.
The point though is that there are many ways to learn this program but when you get right down to the bottom line, you will need to either take a class, or have some one to mentor you for a couple of months then you must do battle with the computer everyday or couple of days with meaningfull projects that you have to show to someone else or have built.
Bill Carty
Oh by the way if you live in the columbus ohio area, eastland career center at hamilton and williams road on the south east side of the city started a CADD Basic Class last night.

There are AutoCad Tutors, occasioinally on Ebay. One by "Softutor" is quite good. It won't make you an expert, but it will get you past the beginner stage.
-Dennis

I suggest you go to a site called E-Technikon which has a superb tutorial/course for a beginner who needs an overview of AutoCAD. The url is: Greetings
Dave