Can't say if it should be a part of beginners guide.
But found it useful, you may need it sometime.
Ever bothered to see the contents of your Nandroid Backup, i.e. the img files created during Nandroid (data.img, system.img)
Here is a small guide and application "unyaffs-x86-win.rar" for that.
Download the attached file and extract to any folder on your PC.
Place the "img" (data or system) file in the same folder where the file "unyaffs.exe" is placed.
Go to command prompt on your PC (windows->run->cmd)
Go to the path of the folder where "img" file and "unyaffs.exe" are placed.
Run "unyaffs", all the contents (data/app) of your "img" file will be extracted to that folder.