Topics for proposed book on styles and templates in Writer?

I am preparing to write a (short) book on using styles and templates in
Writer, aimed at intermediate and advanced users. It will be based on
Chapters 6, 7, and 10 of the Writer Guide (and possibly Chapter 3 of
Getting Started and relevant bits of other Writer Guide chapters, such
as Ch12 on ToCs and Ch13 on Master Docs), but it will be reorganised,
have more detail, and contain more examples of use. The OOoAuthors group
talked for several years about the need for this information for styles,
and I know there are relevant conversations in the list's archives. I am
less sure about conversations related to templates.

I need help finding these conversations. I've turned up some info by
searching my gmail account, but I'm sure I've missed important items.
Any help, such as the subject line of a message, would be greatly
appreciated. You are also welcome to reply to this note with your "wish
list" of things to be included. I am also searching through the Writer
forum [1] for questions that aren't answered (or are answered
inadequately) in the existing chapters. If anyone would like to help
with this research, you are most welcome to do so. I have started a page
on the LO wiki to collect the topics are organise a draft outline.[2]

The book will be under CC-BY license and will be provided as a free PDF
as well as in printed form and possibly in HTML on my "Taming OOo/LibO"
website [2]. It should be useful for users of both OOo and LibO and
indeed will be branded and marketed for both programs. When I get to a
certain point of development, I'll put it out for everyone to review and
comment on. Anyone who contributes in more than a trivial manner will be
listed as a contributor or acknowledged in some way in the book.

P.S. Students and inexperienced technical writers may find the process
of book development interesting. This is the first step: research and
outlining.

--Jean

[1] http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/

[2]
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Writer_Styles_and_Templates_Book_Proposal

[3] http://taming-openoffice-org.com/

Hi Jean,

I am preparing to write a (short) book on using styles and templates
in Writer, aimed at intermediate and advanced users.

Great!

The present UG chapters on Styles&Templates seem to cover - how should I
say - a more horizontal approach targeted towards a certain user level.

Your plan seems to be more vertically oriented and cover the whole
topic in one book, which is much appreciated in my eyes.

...

It should be useful for users of both OOo and
LibO and indeed will be branded and marketed for both programs.

+1

When
I get to a certain point of development, I'll put it out for
everyone to review and comment on.

Although I'm not an expert with regards to styles and templates, I
sometimes prefer some simple graphics to illustrate certain
correlations. So my offer is to produce one or another drawing if you
wish/need.

P.S. Students and inexperienced technical writers may find the
process of book development interesting. This is the first step:
research and outlining.

And, by the way, announcing early what is planned (to allow everybody to
jump in) is a typical characteristic of opennes (like in Open Source or
in Open Content).

Nino

Hi Jean,

Jean Hollis Weber schrieb:

I am preparing to write a (short) book on using styles and templates in
Writer, aimed at intermediate and advanced users.

I like the idea to address advanced users. What kind of authors you will address? Writing a thesis on a technical subject is quite different from writing a travel book and different from making a magazine.

Do you will organize your text along examples or along the sort of styles? For example it is not helpful to tell, that there exists a check box to activate "Register-true", if someone does not know, that he needs register-true for the two-column design of his magazine.

  It will be based on

Chapters 6, 7, and 10 of the Writer Guide (and possibly Chapter 3 of
Getting Started and relevant bits of other Writer Guide chapters, such
as Ch12 on ToCs and Ch13 on Master Docs), but it will be reorganised,
have more detail, and contain more examples of use.

I had only a quick look at those chapters, so it might be, that I overlook something that is already there. But here is, what I am missing, my personally 'wish list':

(1)
Inheritance of style settings and how one can reset inheritance and determine the actual settings in a style in the 'Contains' section of the dialog page 'Organizer'.

(2)
Setting the language of the document. Hierarchy of language settings. Working with different languages in one document.

(3)
Style information in the status bar: Access of page style settings via status bar, Information about lists and outline.

(4)
Connection between page numbering and page style. Reason of empty pages and why "Offset" is bad.

(5)
The implicit anchor property of frame styles.

(6)
Hiding style settings by implicit direct settings, when moving objects with mouse.

(7)
Working with right and left pages. Mirrored alignment.

(8)
All automatism, which are based on styles. For example generating a TOC based on style. But also the other way round, which style is automatically used for something, for example hyperlinks, for bullets, for footnotes, for tables.

(9)
Why and how to use register-true.

(10)
What happens with styles on import and export to doc-format or to rtf-format?

(11)
Background and borders in style, hierarchy and combining.

(12)
The different ways to use format paint brush.

Kind regards
Regina

Jean Hollis Weber schrieb:
> I am preparing to write a (short) book on using styles and templates in
> Writer, aimed at intermediate and advanced users.

I like the idea to address advanced users. What kind of authors you will
address? Writing a thesis on a technical subject is quite different from
writing a travel book and different from making a magazine.

Do you will organize your text along examples or along the sort of
styles? For example it is not helpful to tell, that there exists a check
box to activate "Register-true", if someone does not know, that he needs
register-true for the two-column design of his magazine.

I have not yet decided how to organise the text, or how many different
kinds of authors to address, but I completely agree that examples and
context (when and why to use something) are needed. And lots of diagrams
to illustrate concepts such as the sequence of page styles in a book.

I have thought about doing it as a series of tutorials, each using a
different example (such as thesis, magazine, travel book), and combine
them into the book, along with a reference section at the back.

I will post more as I have time to think more about it. Comments and
suggestions from anyone are welcome.

  It will be based on
> Chapters 6, 7, and 10 of the Writer Guide (and possibly Chapter 3 of
> Getting Started and relevant bits of other Writer Guide chapters, such
> as Ch12 on ToCs and Ch13 on Master Docs), but it will be reorganised,
> have more detail, and contain more examples of use.

I had only a quick look at those chapters, so it might be, that I
overlook something that is already there. But here is, what I am
missing, my personally 'wish list':

Thank you! Some of those items are in other chapters of the Writer
Guide, but most are ones I might not have thought to include. I will add
them to the wiki page.

--Jean

I used to have a wonderful write-up by an OOo contributor from years ago. It is what I used to learn styles initially. Sadly, that contributor is now dead.

I spent a few hours trying to find it but I failed. I need to crawl into a corner and pout now.

Hi :slight_smile:

Blimey. I know the project has been running quite a long time but that's a bit
extreme! Knowing something is out there makes it slightly easier to find than
if we didn't know of it at all tho :slight_smile:
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hi all!

This sounds like a never-ending book. It is limited only by the users'
imaginations ongoing! Personally I use Draw to create all kinds of stuff,
that I can use in Writer or endless other places.

Would any one like a picture of a blizzard last winter in Montreal?

Cheers from Canada,

Bruce M.