As you all know, we are always running behind, sometimes very behind,
on writing user guides for the six-monthly releases of LO. We don't
have a full set of books for v3.5, and we decided some time ago not to
attempt to update the Writer or Calc guides to v3.5. We intended to
update them to v3.6, but with the people available I don't think we'll
achieve that goal, which is a major shame because those are the most
used books.
In addition, we rarely find time or people to do other things on our
wish list, both production and marketing/distribution of our
documents. There are also docs project things that need doing, usually
by me, to document our processes and keep that info up to date and
organised and mentor newcomers. The list goes on...
From discussions here at the LibreOffice Conference, and similar
discussions at the Community Leadership Summit in Juy, I've been
collecting suggestions and ideas on how to attract and keep people who
can do productive work even if they don't have much time or don't
think they have the necessary skills. One approach that I really like
is the so-called "Easy Hacks" but for docs, not development (where
they are known to work very well). Setting up and managing a set of
easy hacks (and doing other project work) will take time away from
other things we are doing, but it has the potential of adding valuable
people to the group.
So, to find time for some other work, and because I think that we will
not get very many of the v3.6 books done before v3.7 comes along, I
propose that we skip v3.6 user guides, work on other things, and go
directly to updates for v3.7. FYI, the code freeze for v3.7 is
scheduled for the first week in December, with release scheduled for
the first week of February. But updating for v3.7 means we also need
to incorporate changes that are included in v3.5 or v3.6. So there is
much work that can be done right now.
I will write a separate note (or perhaps several) about the other work
that needs to be done from now until early December, and ongoing in
parallel with our user guide work.
Meanwhile, comments?
--Jean