Contributing to technical writing and documentation

Hello,

Regarding the recent TDF blog post soliciting documentation
contributors, I am absolutely interested in this.

Completely coincidentally I am presently looking to break into technical
writing as an alternate career path, and would also be interested in
mentoring (if any is available).

I have a strong track record in promulgating LibreOffice/ODF and free
software in general. Many of my blog and social network posts have been
redistributed by the official LibreOffice social networks. I've authored
a substantial amount of LibreOffice technical and end user documentation
as part of a corporate office software migration project, and I'm
gradually adding a number of redacted samples for public viewing to a
new site at:

  * https://docs.davekoelmeyer.co.nz:8181/JSPWiki/

Please feel free to browse and comment. I also have a corporate blog
containing LibreOffice posts with more of a marketing focus:

  * https://www.apertura.co.nz/search/node/libreoffice

Thanks, and looking forward to being on board.

Cheers,
Dave

Hello Dave

Welcome to the Documentation team. Contributions from individuals
skilled in LibreOffice are most appreciated.

What about updating our Getting Started manuals to the 5.2 release?

The task is really easy: Review the 5.1 contents versus 5.2 new features.

For example, pick the chapter on Writer (getting started with Writer) in

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications

*Activate the track changes* in the file and update the text with

  * If a new feature is important for a introductory text, write about
    it, explaining it, or giving instruction on how to make it work.

  * if not (an advanced feature not suited for a newbie user or a
    internal coding tweak), skip it.

The new features of Writer 5.2 (from 5.1) are here

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/5.2#Writer

Hint: A very possible outcome is that there is nothing to modify. But I
leave it to you.

When done, please send the file to me.

Let me know if that is good for a start or you want to address another
documentation topic.

Kind regards

Olivier

Hi Olivier,

I'll be delighted to work on this. I think what I'm also seeking is some
guidance from you and the other documentation experts as to what you
assess my current technical writing ability to be based on my basic
portfolio (relayed off list if that suits better), and then assign work
to me based on this.

For starters this task looks like a great way to begin, so I'll get
stuck in and will be in touch!

Cheers,
Dave

I suggest reviewing a different chapter. I am updating the Writer
Guide and can easily transfer any relevant updates to the chapter on
Writer in the Getting Started Guide.

--Jean

Hi Jean, Olivier,

Sure thing, does any chapter in particular suit?

Cheers,
Dave

Hello Dave

Please consider Calc chapter.

Kind regards

Olivier

Hi All,

Just a note that I've applied for an account to be created on the
ODFAuthors site – not sure who is checking the contact email address for
this but if it could be processed so I can get underway that would be
great, please and thanks :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Dave

Hi Dave,

I notice that you have already an account of the ODFAuthors site (dkoelmeyer). If you encounter any problems, please let us know.

Many thanks
Best regards

Leo Moons
LibreOffice/nl

Hi all, Hi Olivier.
I'm using this tread because I still have this question... I already helped by writting one guide (the help page for Title Page), but it's still confusing for me how can I continue contributing to the project.
I've read a lot of links and I still don't know what's the better way to help you: I don't know if I should try to fix some bug from this list: Product: LibreOffice, Status: all, or if there's a place where I can see what Guides do you need to get writen or updated???

@Olivier,by this time I believe that the introductory text "Getting Started" from version 5.2 to v 5.3 is done?! So, if you need I can update something to version 5.3, or write something from scratch. Is this 'Documentation missing' still valid?

ThanksAndrea.

Hello Andrea

Hi all, Hi Olivier.
I'm using this tread because I still have this question... I already helped by writting one guide (the help page for Title Page),

Yes... we thank you for that, the contents you wrote are already in the
LibreOffice 5.3 release.

but it's still confusing for me how can I continue contributing to the
project.

The documentation project has a wide range of activities. Most are
listed here:
http://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/join-community/

I've read a lot of links and I still don't know what's the better way to help you: I don't know if I should try to fix some bug from this list: Product: LibreOffice, Status: all,

That is a search too wide. It list development bugs.

The list of specific issues on Help documentation is this one (bookmark it!)
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/showdependencytree.cgi?id=80430&hide_resolved=1

Your last contribution was taken from this list.

For example, these topics
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=80367
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=80658

are topics to be written from scratch and are unassigned.

or if there's a place where I can see what Guides do you need to get
writen or updated???

OK. The guides need writers, and all of the need to be updated. I am
evaluating the amount of effort to update the Calc guide to 5.4. Jean
Weber took the Writer guide update.

@Olivier,by this time I believe that the introductory text "Getting Started" from version 5.2 to v 5.3 is done?! So, if you need I can update something to version 5.3, or write something from scratch.

I will publish the list of tasks to update the Getting Started guide
5.3. in this mailing list.

Is this 'Documentation missing' still valid?

Probably not, because the effort to fill the page is almost the same as
fixing the documentation gap itself.

regards