Want to contribute to documentation..

Hello all,
I am Jaimon Jacob from Bangalore, India. I have just finished my certification in technical writing. I would like to contribute to documentation for LibreOffice. I have created user manuals and how-to's with very good reviews, and I am an advanced user of OpenOffice Writer. Will I get some help here on how to get started?
Regards,Jaimon Jacob

I paste below a reply by David Nelson to another mail like yours. Namastè! :slight_smile:

  - - -

Probably the best thing would be to contact the localization mailing
list (http://www.libreoffice.org/get-involved/localizers/) and maybe
get involved in localizing LibreOffice and LibreOffice documentation
for your mother tongue.

However, another path would be to get involved in the English
documentation work.

It mainly depends on where you feel like jumping in.

If you want to get involved in English documentation work, please do
post back here and we will set you up to get started.

David Nelson

  - - -

Hi :slight_smile:

There are a lot of options. Tthe Documentation Team
http://www.libreoffice.org/get-involved/documenters/
the Language Teams
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Language_Teams
which are often called localisers
http://www.libreoffice.org/get-involved/localizers/
and 'local' mailing lists for quite a few languages
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Local_Mailing_Lists
It is a surprise to see so few languages on those lists because i am fairly
certain LibreOffice is translated into well over a hundred languages, i thought
there were around 300 but i could easily be wrong there.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hi,

Thanks for replying Cico and Tom. I would like to get started with English documentation rather than my native language.
Regards,Jaimon Jacob

Hi Jaimon, :slight_smile:

I have created a user account on our Alfresco platform and am mailing
you the password, login name and URLs now.

David Nelson

Hi,

Thanks for the account again. How can I get started?

Regards,Jaimon Jacob

Hi Jaimon, :slight_smile:

Thanks for the account again. How can I get started?

You could start by going to alfresco.libreoffice.org and navigating to
Company Home > (en) English [English] Content > Resources

Then you could download a copy of "intro-libo-docs-team (Working
Copy).odt" and "producing-LibreOffice-userguides.odt" and have a read.

Then maybe one of the other docs team members may suggest a guide on
which you could start working or, failing any response over the next
few hours, I can check the current status of the various guides and
suggest a start point for you.

Also, if there's a particular LibreOffice application you are
interested in then do tell and we can see about getting you started on
that...

HTH.

David Nelson

Hi David,

Thank you for your help. Now, I got an overall idea of what to do. I am an advanced user of OpenOffice.org Writer, so I thought I could start from that, but as I see in another mail, that does not need any help now. I hope you can suggest one for me..

Regards,Jaimon

Hi Jaimon, :slight_smile:

Hi David,

Thank you for your help. Now, I got an overall idea of what to do. I am an advanced user of OpenOffice.org Writer, so I thought I could start from that, but as I see in another mail, that does not need any help now. I hope you can suggest one for me..

OK, I'll check the status of all the guides tomorrow morning my time
(in 15 hours) and then I'll advise you exactly what you could work on.

David Nelson

Hi :slight_smile:
I was just saying that i think the Writer chapters have been completed for this
release of the documentation and there are the other packages to work on.

I could be wrong quite easily. Even if i'm not wrong then it might be possible
to set-up for the next release. I think you would have to find out about
versioning numbers and how to copy the current final back into the early stages
of Alfresco. So, if that is what you would like to work on then it should be
possible but there is other stuff that is more urgent if it's possible for you
to help with that.

Either way your work is greatly appreciated
Good luck and regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hi Tom, :slight_smile:

As you know, I'm out of touch right now... I'll have to scan the list
tomorrow morning and figure out what's done and what's not... Off the
top of your head, got any idea what's hot and waiting for attention?

David Nelson

Hi :slight_smile:
I think most people are working on Impress? A couple of people were interested
in working on Base and there is a LOT of work to be done there! I'm not sure
about Draw or Math. I odn't really notice those 2 although i think i should try
to use Draw instead of always reaching for Gimp. Vector graphics scare me a bit
but i need to use them. The 2 main crucial ones, Writer and Calc, are done (i
think). Impress is the most important one right now imo.

I'm not certain about the status of the packages though so a status report would
be great.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hi Tom, :slight_smile:

Hi :slight_smile:
I think most people are working on Impress?  A couple of people were interested
in working on Base and there is a LOT of work to be done there!  I'm not sure
about Draw or Math.  I odn't really notice those 2 although i think i should try
to use Draw instead of always reaching for Gimp.  Vector graphics scare me a bit
but i need to use them.  The 2 main crucial ones, Writer and Calc, are done (i
think).  Impress is the most important one right now imo.

I'm not certain about the status of the packages though so a status report would
be great.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Thanks for that advice, it gives me an idea of where to start
looking... It seems to me that someone is already working on Base...
But I'll have a detailed look tomorrow morn.... Don't hesititate if
you have other ideas.... :slight_smile:

David Nelson

Hi :slight_smile:
Yes, hopefully Alex Thurgood and someone. Base is in a bit of a mess. Even if
various sources and training guides are consolidated then the documentation is
still likely to be very sparse compared to the other guides. But people seem to
shy away from relational databases or have put so much work into the one they
have that switching to a different one is much more difficult.

By contrast a lot of people seem to be trying Impress and asking questions about
it. So, Base is less urgent imo and probably needs people that have a lot of
experience with it to try getting something together for it first.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

IMPRESS !!!

We need work done on Impress ...

We REALLY need a table to look what is done by whom ...

Rogerio

Hi, :slight_smile:

IMPRESS !!!

We need work done on Impress ...

We REALLY need a table to look what is done by whom ...

OK, I will set up a table on the wiki this weekend, and then get you
guys to take a look at it, comment, edit it, etc.

David Nelson

I set up a table weeks ago but no one has put any info in it. It's on one of the docs devel pages. And now I rally am going into the wilds. See you in a few days. Jean

Hi, :slight_smile:

I set up a table weeks ago but no one has put any info in it. It's on one of the docs devel pages. And now I rally am going into the wilds. See you in a few days. Jean

OK, I got about 2 hours of work to do and then I'll be giving the rest
of the day to docs team matters (sorting out work to suggest to
Jaimon, Song Chuan and Sufyan; Alfresco; assessing progress with
guides; etc.).

David Nelson

Hi Jaimon,

If you still had some free time and still wanted me to suggest a task,
I could recommend updating the screenshots in the Getting Started
guide. Jean just explained the following problems: "The Getting
Started guide desperately needs to have a great many pix replaced.
Many are from Windows (done by Ron [Faile] before the decision to not
use [screenshots from] Windows), and many more still say OOo on them."

So, basically, this job would involve going through each chapter of
the Getting Started guide and replacing the screenshots in accordance
with the LibO Style Guide at http://alfresco.libreoffice.org, under
Company Home > (en) English [English] Content > Resources

This would be a much-appreciated contribution if your schedule so allows...

If it would be useful to you to be able to ask me questions in real
time, you can catch me on Skype as traduction.biz ...

BTW, chapter 1 of Getting Started has several bits of wrong information in it. You may discover them when doing the screenshots. I don't have a list with me, but comparing that chapter to the Calc or Impress first chapter might bring some things to mind. (I found the errors in Getting Started when doing Calc and/or Impress.) The errors were almost certainly mine, so I will take responsibility for going through the revised chapter later to find any that remain.

Jean