Re: [libreoffice-users] LibreOffice's documentation (pdf and online)

On 06/24/2015 07:01 PM, anne-ology wrote:
>            I dislike the way these make it next to impossible to add
> responses, save in some usable form, ... ... ... ]

FWIW, the documentation is available in ODF file formats.

>    2) Does anyone EVER click the F1 key for help? If not, why not?
>
>        [yes, but nary receive a response which answers my question(s)]

Depending upon various factors, when pressing F1, one of five things
will happen:
1) Nothing happens;
# This happens when the help file is not installed;
# This happens when the program can not connect to the Internet;
2) A webpage somewhere on the Internet gets opened, and displayed;
# This happens when the help file is not installed;
3) The Index Page of the built-in help opens;
# When the help file in the appropriate language is installed, this is
the usual, and expected responose;
4) A random page from the built-in help is displayed;
# This does not occur frequently enough to me, to guess as to what is
causing this effect;
5) A page in an "unknown" language is displayed;
# This occurs when the help file in the language that LibO is configured
for, is not installed, but the help file in a different language is
installed;

A separate issue is the contents of the built in help file.

For some things, the help is current, and accurate.
For other things, the information is not just out of date, but will have
the opposite effect of what one intended.

Historically, the group that produces the PDFs, and the group that
produces the built in help file have been entirely separate groups. As
best as I can tell, information available to one, has not been passed
onto the other group.
This works both ways. There is information in the help file that is
current, and accurate, but not reflects in the PDFs. There is
information in the PDFs that is current and accurate, but not reflected
in the Help File.

>    3) Do you see any overall issues concerning the documentation?
>        [what documentation?;

There is/was third party documentation for both LibO and AOo. (IOW,
documentation produces by individuals/organizations outside of
NeoOffice, The Document Foundation, The Apache Software Foundation, and
Multiráciō. (If I got their diacritics wrong, I'll just point out that
they omit them in both the About page for EuroOffice, and the help file
that they created.))

Some of it was much more useful than anything created by the various
projects. Some of it was worse than useless. None of it was adequately
indexed, even by the organizations that hosted it.

>           if LO, then I think they could now eliminate their PP since
> videos are much nicer; easier to use & share]

If anything, videos should be an additional component. As far as easy to
use goes, that is true if, and only if they are:
* Audio Captioned;
* Either Open Captioned or Closed Captioned;
* Have built in bookmarks;

I'll skip the rest of the tech issues, because 100% of the videos that
are "documentation" for LibO, OOo and AOo fail those three criteria,
which means that they fail a11y criteria, which means that technically
they can not be used by any individual that has a11y requirements, or
any organization that has to adhere to a11y legislation.

>    4) If the presentation of the documentation were to change to make
> it more useful, what would it look like?
>
>        [probably something very complicated; every time, I've heard 'user
> friendly' things become more complicated & frustrating.]

What would "user friendly" look like to you?

I know what it looks like to me, which is why the last time I released
any documentation, it was a 2,500 page PDF.

jonathon


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