Re: [documentation-dev] I'm new have some ideas for the how-to's
Sorry, I'm a bit confused - probably as a result of travelling alot yesterday, getting home late and being extremely tired today. Are you proposing to change Writer so that you can incorporate something similar to the way Framemaker applies Master Documents to a Page Layout design and the Book features that Framemaker has, so you can add files and then generate an automatic TOC and control your numbering, cross referencing, etc centrally? Then from that to build an onscreen tutorial to tell people how to use that functionality? Don't forget though that alot of the tweaking especially when Framemaker builds books is done in the Reference Page, where the format for the TOC, Index, any other things you use regularly in the document are defined. Scripts are added there too. Writers can also use the Reference page as a dumping ground. Claire On 3 March 2010 17:01, Gary Schnabl gschn...@swdetroit.com wrote: On 3/2/2010 7:54 PM, Jean Hollis Weber wrote: Gary Schnabl wrote: A tutorial I would like to see would be a definitive, detailed guide for employing Writer with master documents for creating books and such. Master documents is a major area where Writer compares unfavorably with Adobe FrameMaker. Having a solid tutorial with master documents, possibly with macros, user source files, and sample templates added would be a nice addition. Such a tutorial would need to employ much of the functions that OOo has. If any writer or team of writers and editors wants to author/edit such a tutorial, I would volunteer as its lead technical editor. Gary, I'm glad you've raised this topic again, as it's something I would also like to see us provide, to expand upon and supplement the Master Docs chapter in the Writer Guide (which I am in the process of updating). Unfortunately, I never have any time to actually contribute to the effort, so I hope some others may come forward to work on it. --Jean What I had in mind was essentially employing the actual published OOo chapter files (after being reformulated with a revised (book or whatever) chapter template as subdocuments for this master-document (bookmaking) tutorial. That way, the subdocuments would be already available AND be reusable at a later date after they get revised for future OOo versions. The resulting product would then be the entire (printable book) guide: Getting Started, Writer Guide, Calc Guide, etc. The subdocuments would then be continually available and updated, along with anything new that got added along the way. Then, only a small portion of the tutorial itself would need updating in order to make it also current with future OOo versions afterwards. The tutorial could actually become a standalone manual for creating books with OOo. So, the tutorial would be deemed to serve as an internal representation using both front-end and back-end programming. The front-end is anything specifically related to the specific subdocuments used for the resulting document, and its back end would deal with the actual physical output:--a PDF to be sent to a commercial printer or, perhaps, an ebook formatted for a Kindle or an iPad. Anyway, if any writers, reviewers, and editors want to undertake this project, I could serve as the technical-editor glue that keeps the project on course. Gary -- Gary Schnabl Southwest Detroit, two miles NORTH! of Canada--Windsor, that is... Technical Editor forum http://TechnicalEditor.FreeForums.orghttp://technicaleditor.freeforums.org/ LinkedIn profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/garyschnabl Elance profile http://www.elance.com/php/profile/main/eolproviderprofile.php?userid=1892120catid=100edit=truefrom=myelance -- Best wishes Claire Wood
Re: [documentation-dev] I'm new have some ideas for the how-to's
On 3/4/2010 8:04 AM, Claire Wood wrote: Sorry, I'm a bit confused - probably as a result of travelling alot yesterday, getting home late and being extremely tired today. Are you proposing to change Writer so that you can incorporate something similar to the way Framemaker applies Master Documents to a Page Layout design and the Book features that Framemaker has, so you can add files and then generate an automatic TOC and control your numbering, cross referencing, etc centrally? Then from that to build an onscreen tutorial to tell people how to use that functionality? Don't forget though that alot of the tweaking especially when Framemaker builds books is done in the Reference Page, where the format for the TOC, Index, any other things you use regularly in the document are defined. Scripts are added there too. Writers can also use the Reference page as a dumping ground. Claire What did you mean with your question about changing Writer? Did you mean changing the Writer user guide or did you mean changing Writer itself via its use of macros? Actually, both are applicable. The master-documents chapter in the Writer guide could be adapted for use as a mini-tutorial itself if a collection of a few simple chapters were parked online and being available as source documents for its master-documents chapter, along with a completed folder containing the files for a successful minibook example. This exercise could show how basic master documents work in general. However, an additional, standalone user guide (or tutorial) of both master documents and macros at an intermediate to an advanced level is better than complicating the Writer user guide. A standalone manual of these more involved topics can be extended, making it somewhat open ended. Having it included as an appendix to the Writer Guide would be inappropriate due to both its size and learning-curve effort expected of their users. As it is, the Writer Guide treatment of both macros and master documents is not deep enough for advanced-level projects involving those topics. Thus, an intermediate-level tutorial in this advanced manual could be devised whereby users would take our own edited chapter files and gain an expertise making their own Writer user guides or Calc user guides, etc. Another tutorial could deal with using (or creating) macros and such for extending the Writer component for increasing its usefulness. As is, Writer does not compare well with standard Adobe FrameMaker for creating large documernts, which can be further extended through its use of FrameScripts and by utilizing the FrameMaker Development Kit, which can modify the FrameMaker GUI itself. So, creating and further expanding another OOo user guide could expand the use of Writer into mostly uncharted waters, for the vast majority of its users. Gary -- Gary Schnabl Southwest Detroit, two miles NORTH! of Canada--Windsor, that is... Technical Editor forum http://TechnicalEditor.FreeForums.org LinkedIn profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/garyschnabl Elance profile http://www.elance.com/php/profile/main/eolproviderprofile.php?userid=1892120catid=100edit=truefrom=myelance
Re: [documentation-dev] I'm new have some ideas for the how-to's
On 3/2/2010 7:54 PM, Jean Hollis Weber wrote: Gary Schnabl wrote: A tutorial I would like to see would be a definitive, detailed guide for employing Writer with master documents for creating books and such. Master documents is a major area where Writer compares unfavorably with Adobe FrameMaker. Having a solid tutorial with master documents, possibly with macros, user source files, and sample templates added would be a nice addition. Such a tutorial would need to employ much of the functions that OOo has. If any writer or team of writers and editors wants to author/edit such a tutorial, I would volunteer as its lead technical editor. Gary, I'm glad you've raised this topic again, as it's something I would also like to see us provide, to expand upon and supplement the Master Docs chapter in the Writer Guide (which I am in the process of updating). Unfortunately, I never have any time to actually contribute to the effort, so I hope some others may come forward to work on it. --Jean What I had in mind was essentially employing the actual published OOo chapter files (after being reformulated with a revised (book or whatever) chapter template as subdocuments for this master-document (bookmaking) tutorial. That way, the subdocuments would be already available AND be reusable at a later date after they get revised for future OOo versions. The resulting product would then be the entire (printable book) guide: Getting Started, Writer Guide, Calc Guide, etc. The subdocuments would then be continually available and updated, along with anything new that got added along the way. Then, only a small portion of the tutorial itself would need updating in order to make it also current with future OOo versions afterwards. The tutorial could actually become a standalone manual for creating books with OOo. So, the tutorial would be deemed to serve as an internal representation using both front-end and back-end programming. The front-end is anything specifically related to the specific subdocuments used for the resulting document, and its back end would deal with the actual physical output:--a PDF to be sent to a commercial printer or, perhaps, an ebook formatted for a Kindle or an iPad. Anyway, if any writers, reviewers, and editors want to undertake this project, I could serve as the technical-editor glue that keeps the project on course. Gary -- Gary Schnabl Southwest Detroit, two miles NORTH! of Canada--Windsor, that is... Technical Editor forum http://TechnicalEditor.FreeForums.org LinkedIn profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/garyschnabl Elance profile http://www.elance.com/php/profile/main/eolproviderprofile.php?userid=1892120catid=100edit=truefrom=myelance
Re: [documentation-dev] I'm new have some ideas for the how-to's
On 3/2/2010 11:50 AM, Josh wrote: Hey everyone. I am new to the mailing list so please let me know if I am missing something or doing something wrong. I run the site easy10seconds.com, which is a video how to site with the idea of supplying short free videos for others to link to. I have 3 OOo right now; Calc, Writer Impress. (http://easy10seconds.com/How-To-Video/OpenOffice.org) I am starting off small and simple and just making short how-to's of the commands in action. Tutorials will most likely come later, but there are usually enough full tutorials out there already. My idea right now is to see if integrating these small videos into a text tutorial might be beneficial to an end user learning the software. For example: Say the section of the how to is talking about fill a range of cells with data any word could then be hyperlinked to this video: http://easy10seconds.com/How-To-Videos/OpenOffice.org/Calc/Fill-a-Range-of-Cells-with-Data/video This would allow the user to be able to read over the hyperlinked word if they already know it or click on the link if they would like to see an example of this being done. This could be done for a number of commands or actions, anywhere from Insert a Column 11 seconds (http://easy10seconds.com/How-To-Videos/OpenOffice.org/Calc/Insert-a-Column/video) To Combine Data from Cell Ranges 16-seconds (http://easy10seconds.com/How-To-Videos/OpenOffice.org/Calc/Combine-Data-from-Cell-Ranges/video) I am open to suggestions am willing to put in some time to help make more videos if people find it helpful. I have a few more ideas that people might be interested in, one is a quiz or software Training that makes use of these Video Hints in an interactive quiz like format. You can try it out on the home page bottom right (http://easy10seconds.com/) or specific ones: Photoshop (http://easy10seconds.com/Demo/Photoshop-CS4/25/33) Flash (http://easy10seconds.com/Demo/Flash-CS4/59/40) PowerPoint (http://easy10seconds.com/Demo/PowerPoint-2007/19/13) I have a calc one that I will be putting out on the site this week or next week. Let me know your ideas. Thanks, -Josh A tutorial I would like to see would be a definitive, detailed guide for employing Writer with master documents for creating books and such. Master documents is a major area where Writer compares unfavorably with Adobe FrameMaker. Having a solid tutorial with master documents, possibly with macros, user source files, and sample templates added would be a nice addition. Such a tutorial would need to employ much of the functions that OOo has. If any writer or team of writers and editors wants to author/edit such a tutorial, I would volunteer as its lead technical editor. Gary -- Gary Schnabl Southwest Detroit, two miles NORTH! of Canada--Windsor, that is... Technical Editor forum http://TechnicalEditor.FreeForums.org LinkedIn profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/garyschnabl Elance profile http://www.elance.com/php/profile/main/eolproviderprofile.php?userid=1892120catid=100edit=truefrom=myelance
Re: [documentation-dev] I'm new have some ideas for the how-to's
Linking from the user guide chapters in the wiki sounds good to me. Some links have already been added (not by me) from the UGs to other tutorials and items on the wiki or on other websites. (When I see them, I check them to make sure they are legitimate and not spam.) I'm not sure I like the idea of linking words or phrases within a wiki page instead of adding a see also section at the end of a page, but I am definitely in favour of the general idea. Because anyone can update the wiki, these links can be added and updated relatively quickly and easily. Putting links in the user guide PDFs would be more work (and would probably be more out of date) because the PDFs are generated infrequently from the source ODTs. --Jean Claire Wood wrote: Can I ask... Are you planning for these links in the pdfs or wiki guides? I'm not sure whether Jean Co would be keen on external links being in the pdfs, but I don't know, you'd have to check with her. I'm currently working on a Base mid-level tutorial document with Mariano Cassanova and it seems like a good idea. I was going to have a crack at an accompanying video for it myself because I'm quite interested in doing some elearning tutorials, but overall it seems like a good idea. Claire On 2 March 2010 10:50, Josh j...@delcore.us wrote: Hey everyone. I am new to the mailing list so please let me know if I am missing something or doing something wrong. I run the site easy10seconds.com, which is a video how to site with the idea of supplying short free videos for others to link to. I have 3 OOo right now; Calc, Writer Impress. ( http://easy10seconds.com/How-To-Video/OpenOffice.org) I am starting off small and simple and just making short how-to's of the commands in action. Tutorials will most likely come later, but there are usually enough full tutorials out there already. My idea right now is to see if integrating these small videos into a text tutorial might be beneficial to an end user learning the software. For example: Say the section of the how to is talking about fill a range of cells with data any word could then be hyperlinked to this video: http://easy10seconds.com/How-To-Videos/OpenOffice.org/Calc/Fill-a-Range-of-Cells-with-Data/video This would allow the user to be able to read over the hyperlinked word if they already know it or click on the link if they would like to see an example of this being done. This could be done for a number of commands or actions, anywhere from Insert a Column 11 seconds ( http://easy10seconds.com/How-To-Videos/OpenOffice.org/Calc/Insert-a-Column/video ) To Combine Data from Cell Ranges 16-seconds ( http://easy10seconds.com/How-To-Videos/OpenOffice.org/Calc/Combine-Data-from-Cell-Ranges/video ) I am open to suggestions am willing to put in some time to help make more videos if people find it helpful. I have a few more ideas that people might be interested in, one is a quiz or software Training that makes use of these Video Hints in an interactive quiz like format. You can try it out on the home page bottom right (http://easy10seconds.com/) or specific ones: Photoshop ( http://easy10seconds.com/Demo/Photoshop-CS4/25/33) Flash ( http://easy10seconds.com/Demo/Flash-CS4/59/40) PowerPoint ( http://easy10seconds.com/Demo/PowerPoint-2007/19/13) I have a calc one that I will be putting out on the site this week or next week. Let me know your ideas. Thanks, -Josh - To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@documentation.openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@documentation.openoffice.org
