Hi.
I am new to this, and would like some help about what I need to do. I am
English (from London) and would like to help review changes to the docs.
Can someone give me instructions? The Documentation/Development wiki page
makes little sense to a beginner like me.
If you do not already have an account on the ODFAuthors website (where the docs are stored during development), I or someone will set one up for you. You will need that for downloading draft files for review and uploading the reviewed versions.
However, you do not need to wait for an account to download chapters of the Contributors Guide from the wiki. Links are on the page you mention in your note. The chapter on producing user guides should help, but if not we'll certainly try to explain things better here (and then improve the contributors guide as well).
--Jean
I have now created your account at ODFAuthors. You should receive an
email with a link to set your password. Welcome to the team!
--Jean
I already have a ODFAuthors account, but am not sure where to start. I'm
not sure which chapters of the CG I need to read, and some of the chapters
seem to be missing. Can you let me know which one explains the different
tasks (in particular proofreading and reviewing). I have seen the first
few, but I'm a bit stuck as to what I need to do - the instructions on the
of the page don't make sense
I would say that a reviewer studies the information in the document. Is
it correct? Is it easy to understand? Could it be done better - for
example by using lists or tables instead of plain text? Would
additional or different illustrations be appropriate? Has anything been
missed out that ought to be in there?
A proofreader looks for spelling and grammatical mistakes, smooth flow
of the language without unnecessary repetition, illustrations that show
what they're described as showing, correct numbering in lists, correct
cross-references, and so on.
A reviewer needs technical knowledge; a proofreader needs linguistic
fluency.
I get that, but where do we post our reviews? On ODFAuthors? On a
conversation here? I'm not sure...
Hi 
Ahhh, that makes a lot of sense to me. Kieran?
I suspect that those are not 100% rigid though and that a reviewer might make proof-reading changes if that clarified something and a proof-reader might suddenly gain an understanding and see a simpler way of describing something but that it's best to try to stick within the role as far as possible to avoid getting bogged down in the task?
Regards from
Tom
For your review, here are some suggestions.
1.) Edit > Changes > Show
2.) Edit > Changes > Record
Then make any changes in the text. Your changes included spelling, added words, and and deletions you make. Any additions that you make will appear in the text as underlined. Anything you delete will have a line drawn through it in the text. Just remember that you are deleting anything from the document: you are only showing what you think should be deleted. When you are finished, upload the file to the draft folder (Writer folder for Base folder for Base documents, Writer folder for Writer Documents, etc.).
After uploading the file to the ODFAuthor website, send a document to this mailing list telling us what you have done and include a link to the file in the ODFAuthor website in your email.
3) For making a comment, click where you want the comment to go. Use Control+Alt+C to create it and enter your remarks.
--Dan
I agree with Hazel's summary, except that I would say a reviewer does
not necessarily need technical knowledge. Newbies can often spot
problems that knowledgeable readers won't notice, for example
regarding whether explanations are easy to understand or another
illustration would be helpful or the terms used in the text don't
match the terms in the illustrations.
Anyone can follow the instructions and look at the pictures while
using the program, and see if the dialog boxes have changed. Ideally,
each chapter would be reviewed by one person who is technically
knowledgeable and one person who is not, but that rarely occurs due to
lack of people.
Unfortunately, a lot of "reviewers" appear to read the chapter but
don't follow along using the program, because they don't spot what to
me are glaring differences between the illustrations and the dialog
boxes and thus notice things that need to be updated.
--Jean
Thanks everyone! One final question if possible: Do
I overwrite the existing doc on ODFAuthors, or make a different version
(say with "[Reviewed]" on the end of the filename)
When you download the file, you will see it contains a date of the form YYYYMMDD. Before that you should also see someone's initials that begin and end with an underline. After you have reviewed the document, do a Save AS to add your initials after the initials in the file name and change the date.
For example: Suppose I reviewed this file: IntroductionToImpress_20121201_JHW_MZ.odt. I finished the review and uploaded the file on January 15, 2013. When I do the Save As, I change the name of the file to IntroductionToImpress_20130115_JHW_MZ_DEL.odt before saving it and uploading it to the Draft folder of the Impress folder. I changed the date from 20121201 to 2013015 and added my initials at the end (DEL).
So, when you upload the file, its name has been modified and you do not then have to worry about overwriting a file.
You also have one more thing to do when uploading the file. You need to change the status of the file once it is uploaded. Change its state from Internal draft to Publish Internally.
--Dan
Sorry - still got a few more: Are the grey bits between / over some words
supposed to be there? (E.g. GettingStartedWithCalc has one to the right of
the title (after the LO Logo) and over the footer text.) and is it OK to
delete them?
DO NOT delete any if those grey bits if you can avoid it. They are fields and need to be there. Some are essential for the file to work correctly. Others mark index entries. For more info, please read the chapter on fields in the Writer Guide.
--Jean