[libreoffice-design] Screenshots for LibreOffice documentation

Hi Jay, *,

On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 4:26 AM, planas <jslozier@gmail.com> wrote:
> Unless someone is willing to spend the time and money to properly
> research the US legal issues, the safest course is avoid any chance of
> putting us into a possible legal crosshairs. I have neither. The problem
> is that no one has come forward who is US  attorney and knowledgeable on
> software related issues to advise us. MS could consider LO as a direct
> competitor to MSO and thus would look for our legal blunders committed
> out of ignorance of US law.
>
> It may be more tedious for us to make sure our screenshots do not show
> anything that would imply a Windows OS but it is safer. I doubt any
> Linux distro would be upset if their desktop was identifiable in one of
> our screenshots. In fact a subtle plug could made by saying all the
> screenshots were made on various Linux distros. Many Windows users think
> we are command line using dinosaurs and would be surprised to see a
> vaguely familiar desktop.

Well, if one *were* to accept that the risk might possibly exist in
the US, I somehow *feel* that Microsoft would be much less likely to
succeed in such hypothetical action in European courts. Also,
certainly in Europe, Microsoft would be likely to attract loud
criticism and incite hostile activism in doing so.

But, even if one were to avoid Windows screenshots to the greatest
extent possible (it being difficult to produce good Windows
installation guides - for example - without taking screenshots under
Windows), I still would not like to see the English docs team and
website team taking its screenshots purely under Linux/Unix. What
about the Macintosh platform? I'd certainly like to encourage more
involvement from Mac users.

Also, in response to a conversation taking place currently on the
Design mailing list (the which list I'm CC'ing), it's my personal
feeling that it is not especially beneficial to ensure that all
screenshots look identical (in terms of the theme used). Nor do I
personally feel it's particularly beneficial to ensure that all
screenshots be taken using a theme based on colors from the
LibreOffice Design/Marketing pallet.

An English documentation contributor's guide has been developed with
rational recommendations for the taking of screenshots, and I think it
largely addresses the issues that really matter in terms of their
usability/suitability.

However, I feel that we should make it as easy as possible for new
English docs and website contributors to get involved, and not set-up
unnecessary requirements in terms of software used and GUI
environment. And I also feel we should *celebrate* the possible
diversity of OS and GUI for running LibreOffice, and need not shun
variety of colors and themes in screenshots either for English
LibreOffice documentation or for LibreOffice websites.

Anyway, this is just to make clear my own POV on the subject one final
time. Thanks for reading, if you did.

-- 
David Nelson

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