Ping Simon: Rebranding etc

Some caveats about working on rebranding:
1) The preferred words document may contain proposed words that have not in
fact been agreed upon. I haven' had a chance to check it to be sure, but I'd
advise proceeding with caution. The group did agree that other than a few
minor wording issues, we would defer that level of copyediting change to a
later release.

2) I don't recall whether Barbara or Ron (who have done most of the
rebranding work) have produced a document summarising what needs to be done,
but you can probably work most of it out by looking at chapters of the
Writer Guide that are on the wiki or the website. NOT the Getting Started
guide, which was done so early that it may not have the latest rebranding
features. http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation OR
http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/documentation/

If you'd like to do further reviews on the Calc Guide, and if you happen to
use Windows, some chapters need some items checked specifically on Windows
because they may be different from Linux or they are Windows only. I don't
recall which chapters these are.

Hal

Thanks for the information. I am using windows so I will perhaps do a review
of the Calc guide first. It would be a help if it was noted down which
chapters may contain items that differ between Linux & Windows builds but I
don't mind finding them myself.

I left notes in the relevant chapters; checking... Chapter 10 is one. Can't
recall now if there was in fact another.

Hal

Sorry didn't realise the notes were made. It's okay I will go through the
chapters then a little later.

I downloaded chap 1 of the calc guide from alfresco after checking the site
and wiki to see if there is a newer version. I noticed that the screenshot
for the quickstarter was from OOo so replaced it with the LO version (from
Win 7), renamed the figure, and added an image of the tray icon.

There are a number of OOo screens which I could replace. Think I read
somewhere that screenshots for features that are not windows-specific are
better taken from Ubuntu? May be mistaken.

Anyway if I'm not wasting my time on a deprecated doc, I could go ahead and
replace some of those screenshots and upload the draft before tackling more
urgent tasks (other windows-specific features and differing functionality in
Calc chaps, Writer)?

Simon

I thought I had replaced all those pix, so you may have an old copy of
that file. If so, probably I goofed and didn't upload the latest. It's
also possible I missed some pix. I'll check my copy when I get a
chance later today. What is the publication date given on the
copyright page?

You are correct that pix should not be taken from Windows except for
Windows specific things or pix in which it's not obvious which o/s
it's from (many cropped pix fall in that group). Any version of Linux
(not just Ubuntu) is okay and so is Mac OS X.

Hal

Simon, I've checked my copy and found that I had in fact failed to
replace that figure you mentioned. I'm not sure which other "OOo
screens" you're referring to, but I often don't see things that are
right in front of me.

So please carry on. And thanks!

Hal

Hi Hal,

Thanks for checking. There are quite a few with the OOo icon at the left of
the control bars, including figures 2, 5, and 10 (colour picker). Haven't
got my ubuntu image set up yet so can't check but perhaps the linux build is
still using some legacy image files.

Sorry, loaded up Ubuntu and the current screenshots look correct. Will just
go ahead and have a stab at making some changes then attach them here and/or
on Alfresco.

Please do NOT send files to the list. I don't recall whether the list
sends attachments on to subscribers, but if it does then most people
will be inconvenienced by receiving something they don't want.

When you downloaded the file from Alfresco, did you check it out? If
not, then do that before uploading and checking in your revision.

BTW the preferred convention on the LibreOffice lists is to post
replies at the bottom of the note, not at the top. That's not my
personal preference, but I try to go with the flow.

Jean

I have uploaded the updated Calc guide chap 1. Only made 1 change. I edited
it in its place (Reviewed), wasn't sure if I should have checked it into
Drafts but guessing not.

Simon

Hi, :slight_smile:

I have uploaded the updated Calc guide chap 1. Only made 1 change. I edited
it in its place (Reviewed), wasn't sure if I should have checked it into
Drafts but guessing not.

Simon

OK, I'll move it into Drafts.

David Nelson

I've done it myself, it was a poor assumption :slight_smile:

Hi :slight_smile:
Attachments to the list get striped off so that no-one receives the
attachments. I know the issue is resolved now and was done well at the time.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hi :slight_smile:
I have been worrying about there not being enough people doing the actual work
in LibreOffice Documentation Team, particularly since finding that 2 of the
hardest workers are in fact just 1 person!

I was wondering about putting a call out to the Ubuntu Documentation Team to see
if we could attract a couple of them over here? They have just been exploring
different tools for writing documentation and settled on Mallard a few months
ago. I don't think Alfresco came up in their discussions. Is Alfresco similar
enough to Mallard to make transition easy for them if they join us/you? Now we
have documentation about using Alfresco it should be easier for them and anyway
Alfresco looks intuitive enough that they should be able to "get it" with gentle
nudges?

Would it be too cheeky to ask them? It would probably help them to work at
documentation upstream, here. Their translation teams are often encouraged to
work upstream but those teams don't seem to work closely with their
documentation team but they might be familiar with the idea, maybe.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Another good potential source of members is the OOo docs team, who have the advantage of being familiar with the base product. They may not want to make the switch from the ODFAuthors platform to Alfresco, but to me that's a trivial difference of tools. If it's a show stopper for anyone, there are ways around the problem. IMO, we should not let our choice of platform dictate who can participate, if they are otherwise interested and capable.

Also, I strongly believe (based on positive experience with OOo docs) that people who are not native English speakers can be extremely valuable members of the English team. The only place where native speakers may have an advantage is at the copy editing stage (which some incorrectly call proofreading). The biggest lack IMO is people who can and will do reviews for content accuracy, and high English skills are not necessary for that work. IMO we should be encouraging these people to participate, not discouraging them.

Lastly, we need more than just user guides, and not all of our docs needs are best managed through Alfresco. For example, FAQs may be better managed on the wiki, and in the past assistance had been requested for website text.

As for the Ubuntu docs people, I don't think it's cheeky to ask them.

--Jean

________________________________
From: Jean Weber <jeanweber@gmail.com>
To: "documentation@libreoffice.org" <documentation@libreoffice.org>
Sent: Fri, 29 April, 2011 22:41:33
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-documentation] Mallard vs Alfresco

On 30/04/2011, at 5:45 AM, Tom Davies <tomdavies04@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Hi :slight_smile:
I have been worrying about there not being enough people doing the actual work

in LibreOffice Documentation Team, particularly since finding that 2 of the
hardest workers are in fact just 1 person!

I was wondering about putting a call out to the Ubuntu Documentation Team to
see

if we could attract a couple of them over here? They have just been exploring

different tools for writing documentation and settled on Mallard a few months
ago. I don't think Alfresco came up in their discussions. Is Alfresco similar

enough to Mallard to make transition easy for them if they join us/you? Now we

have documentation about using Alfresco it should be easier for them and anyway

Alfresco looks intuitive enough that they should be able to "get it" with
gentle

nudges?

Would it be too cheeky to ask them? It would probably help them to work at
documentation upstream, here. Their translation teams are often encouraged to

work upstream but those teams don't seem to work closely with their
documentation team but they might be familiar with the idea, maybe.

Another good potential source of members is the OOo docs team, who have the
advantage of being familiar with the base product. They may not want to make the
switch from the ODFAuthors platform to Alfresco, but to me that's a trivial
difference of tools. If it's a show stopper for anyone, there are ways around
the problem. IMO, we should not let our choice of platform dictate who can
participate, if they are otherwise interested and capable.

Also, I strongly believe (based on positive experience with OOo docs) that
people who are not native English speakers can be extremely valuable members of
the English team. The only place where native speakers may have an advantage is
at the copy editing stage (which some incorrectly call proofreading). The
biggest lack IMO is people who can and will do reviews for content accuracy, and
high English skills are not necessary for that work. IMO we should be
encouraging these people to participate, not discouraging them.

Lastly, we need more than just user guides, and not all of our docs needs are
best managed through Alfresco. For example, FAQs may be better managed on the
wiki, and in the past assistance had been requested for website text.

As for the Ubuntu docs people, I don't think it's cheeky to ask them.

Jean

Hi :slight_smile:
Thanks. I might ask Ubuntu-Docs tomorrow although i have a feeling they might
not respond quickly anyway.

I thought ODFauthors was an alternative way that anyone could use to work on our
documentation and that which-ever system was used it would be wise for people to
say which docs they have worked on to keep the list informed? So, i have
assumed that OOo people could "get stuck in right away" and then gradually get
used to Alfresco at their own pace?

My own feeling about non-English people writing documentation largely concurs
with Jean's except that i think it's friendlier and perhaps sexier sometimes
when there is a hint of foreign, exotic lands. Even tho it seems to contradict
Jean's point I do also agree with someone else that said something about it
making it more difficult for later edits when people write in a language that is
not their 1st. However there are many and frequent exceptions to that. I think
the trick is to be more relaxed about those final edits and to sometimes let a
hint of 'foreign' magic slip through. Later revisions are likely to smooth
those out anyway.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

For user guide chapters, it's more complicated than that, given the
collaborative nature of the work. Certainly if someone is writing a
draft, particularly of a more stand-alone document that isn't already in
the Alfresco system, they could store it on ODFAuthors during
development without confusing others. But people updating, reviewing and
editing existing docs would need more coordination if they weren't all
working on the same platform, and things could potentially get very
confusing very quickly.

One possible scenario for anyone who seriously wants to stay on
ODFAuthors is to ask someone to check out docs from Alfresco for them to
work on and check those docs back in again when the work has been done.
I've done that on occasion for people who have had difficulties with
access to the ODFAuthors site; it's not ideal, but it works. Not that I
am recommending that approach.

The ODFAuthors alternative is more viable for whole groups, such as the
Spanish or German group, who choose to use that platform exclusively.

--Jean