Help files are inconsistent

As part of my efforts to clean up some help files I've found that at least
one file that I downloaded from git://gerrit.libreoffice.org/help doesn't
have the same text as in the corresponding LO help file (5.0.5 en-GB). This
may of course happen on other files.

This raises the question - is this a deliberate fork or has something gone
wrong?

The file is help/source/text/shared/01/ref_pdf_export.xhp if that's any
help.

Hello Peter

As part of my efforts to clean up some help files I've found that at least
one file that I downloaded from git://gerrit.libreoffice.org/help doesn't
have the same text as in the corresponding LO help file (5.0.5 en-GB). This
may of course happen on other files.

This raises the question - is this a deliberate fork or has something gone
wrong?

The file is help/source/text/shared/01/ref_pdf_export.xhp if that's any
help.

You can get the history of the file in Opengrok:

http://opengrok.libreoffice.org/history/help/source/text/shared/01/ref_pdf_export.xhp

The help content has gaps in contents and updates since long time and
these gaps are progressively being closed by our eforts to deliver a
consistent and precise documentation for users. It however does not
happen in a finger snap, unfortunately.

Regards

Thanks Olivier.

I can't see from this where the problem happened (I don't know Opengrok at
all - never heard of it before your post - more thanks).

The files on Opengrok have the same content as the files I downloaded. But
the help text from F1 in LO is different (and a bit better), so it looks as
if somehow the distributed text has been cleaned up but not put onto the
repository.

Details (if it helps):

Under "User options - Hide menu bar" the text from the repository is "Select
to hide...". From the help text it's "Select this option to hide..." and in
many other places as well.

I noticed this by chance.

My issue is that this is one of the files I cleaned up, and now some merging
is going to be needed, which complicates life for everyone, including no
doubt the translators.

Olivier Hallot-4 wrote

Hello Peter

Thanks Olivier.

I can't see from this where the problem happened (I don't know Opengrok at
all - never heard of it before your post - more thanks).

The files on Opengrok have the same content as the files I downloaded. But
the help text from F1 in LO is different (and a bit better), so it looks as
if somehow the distributed text has been cleaned up but not put onto the
repository.

The reporsitory in opengrok has the latest changes (we call it master)
and will be the help content of LibreOffice 5.2 later this year. When
you pulled the help content with git, you downloaded the same content as
displayed in opengrok.

The distributed text is from release 5.1 or lower, which means that you
see differences between releases. If the forthcomming release 5.2 is
worse than the distributed release, we did it wrong.

If you want to check the latest content, you can download and install
the nightly builds of LibreOffice.

http://vm173.documentfoundation.org has the help content XHP file
directly rendered in the browser. Just append the path/file of the XHP
file in the url to get it displayed, e.g. to display

text/shared/01/ref_pdf_export.xhp

navigate to

http://vm173.documentfoundation.org/text/shared/01/ref_pdf_export.xhp

Details (if it helps):

Under "User options - Hide menu bar" the text from the repository is "Select
to hide...". From the help text it's "Select this option to hide..." and in
many other places as well.

I noticed this by chance.

I searched the text you mention and found this:

----------------------------8<--------------------------------------
git grep Select\ to\ hide

shared/01/ref_pdf_export.xhp: <paragraph xml-lang="en-US"
id="par_id6582537" role="paragraph" l10n="NEW"><ahelp hid=".">Select to
hide the reader's menu bar when the document is active.</ahelp></paragraph>

shared/01/ref_pdf_export.xhp: <paragraph xml-lang="en-US"
id="par_id769066" role="paragraph" l10n="NEW"><ahelp hid=".">Select to
hide the reader's toolbar when the document is active.</ahelp></paragraph>

shared/01/ref_pdf_export.xhp: <paragraph xml-lang="en-US"
id="par_id43641" role="paragraph" l10n="NEW"><ahelp hid=".">Select to
hide the reader's controls when the document is active.</ahelp></paragraph>

tdf@olivier-ntbk:~/git/core/helpcontent2/source/text$ git grep Select\
this\ option

scalc/01/05070500.xhp:<paragraph role="paragraph" id="par_id3155378"
xml-lang="en-US" l10n="U" oldref="28"><ahelp
hid="modules/scalc/ui/sheetprintpage/checkBTN_PAGENO">Select this option
if you want the first page to start with a number other than
1.</ahelp></paragraph>

scalc/01/12090105.xhp:<paragraph role="paragraph" id="par_id3149581"
xml-lang="en-US" l10n="U" oldref="9"><ahelp
hid="modules/scalc/ui/pivotfielddialog/user">Select this option, and
then click the type of subtotal that you want to calculate in the
list.</ahelp></paragraph>

shared/01/05030100.xhp: <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3147494"
role="paragraph" l10n="U" oldref="40">Select this option and then enter
a percentage value in the box, where 100% corresponds to single line
spacing.</paragraph>

shared/01/05030600.xhp: <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3153741"
role="paragraph" l10n="U" oldref="28"><ahelp
hid="cui/ui/backgroundpage/positionrb">Select this option, and then
click a location in the position grid.</ahelp></paragraph>

shared/01/05210700.xhp:<paragraph role="paragraph" id="par_id3150693"
xml-lang="en-US" l10n="U" oldref="7"><ahelp
hid="cui/ui/transparencytabpage/RBT_TRANS_LINEAR">Turns on color
transparency. Select this option, and then enter a number in the box,
where 0% is fully opaque and 100% is fully transparent.</ahelp></paragraph>

shared/01/05210700.xhp:<paragraph role="paragraph" id="par_id3155338"
xml-lang="en-US" l10n="U" oldref="12"><ahelp
hid="cui/ui/transparencytabpage/RBT_TRANS_GRADIENT">Applies a
transparency gradient to the current fill color. Select this option, and
then set the gradient properties.</ahelp></paragraph>

shared/01/06050500.xhp: <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3145085"
role="paragraph" l10n="U" oldref="77">Adds a bullet to the beginning of
a line. Select this option, and then click the <emph>Character</emph>
button to choose a bullet style.</paragraph>

shared/01/06050500.xhp: <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3157817"
role="paragraph" l10n="U" oldref="80">Displays an image for the bullet.
Select this option, and then click <emph>Select</emph> to locate the
image file that you want to use. The image gets embedded into the
document.</paragraph>

shared/01/06050500.xhp: <paragraph xml-lang="en-US" id="par_id3151210"
role="paragraph" l10n="U" oldref="111">Displays an image for the bullet.
Select this option, and then click <emph>Select</emph> to locate the
image file that you want to use. The image gets inserted as a link to
the image file.</paragraph>

shared/autopi/01170000.xhp:<paragraph role="paragraph"
id="par_id3145071" xml-lang="en-US" l10n="U" oldref="11"><ahelp
hid="modules/sabpilot/ui/selecttypepage/firefox">Select this option if
you already use an address book in Firefox or Iceweasel.</ahelp></paragraph>
----------------------------8<--------------------------------------

My issue is that this is one of the files I cleaned up, and now some merging
is going to be needed, which complicates life for everyone, including no
doubt the translators.

Once you modify the file, you have done an "enhancement" to our
software. The differences between your work and the existing text is a
"patch". A patch must be submitted to our git repository interface
named gerrit. Someone, (possibly me or another developer [1]) will
review your patch and approve, comment and ask for more work, or reject
it. Once approved your enhancement is part of LibreOffice.

How to submit a patch:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/gerrit

regards
Olivier

[1] https://goo.gl/lhDNGt
Gerrit: https://goo.gl/0cix0

Thanks Olivier,