Finally catching up on this topic...
On 6/28/07, Gary Schnabl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
... we should go into some detail about how, where, when, and why
some of the various styles are used so that less editing need be
performed when standardizing various formats among chapters.
What was clearly absent from earlier versions was a set of detailed
instructions about bulleted and numbered lists. This formatting should
be made clearer.
Suggested changes to chapter template and instructions:
1) Make it a real (.ott) template and use it properly.
2) Ensure no x-refs to the field info held in Doc Properties, because
this info is lost when docs become part of a master doc. Should we
remove this info, eg on User-defined tab, to minimize confusion?
3) Update copyright info for CC license, but retain the full link text
for the two licenses so it is visible when printed.
4) Remove line for maintainer's name or make it optional. The original
intention was to give credit to the person doing the work, but many
chapters no longer have an ongoing maintainer. IMO best to just leave
the line to direct comments to the list.
5) Remove "New in 2.0" graphic and the note-like table used for it. No
longer needed.
6) Ensure no use of Times or Courier: these cause problems for me when
creating the printed books from Lulu. For example, the copyright
symbol in the current "template" is in Times; needs to be Times New
Roman. Text created by the drawing tools defaults to Times (at least
on my system); this needs to be changed to Arial or Times New Roman.
We shouldn't be using the drawing tools anyway (because of other
problems), but if we do -- we need to agree on what font to use for
the text.
7) Ensure no hyphen after chapter title on title page, even when a
subtitle in included. The chapter title goes into the page footer, but
the subtitle doesn't, so the occasional hyphen there looks silly as
makes the footers inconsistent.
8) Make the Frame frame style identical to the one we have defined for
OOoFrame, or delete OOoFrame; main requirement: remove the 0.20 cm
spacing on left, right, top, bottom for Frame. Also, make the Graphics
frame style the same as OOoGraphics. When new graphics are added,
their style defaults to Graphics and no one changes the style to
OOoGraphics. When a caption is added to a graphic, both are contained
in a frame of style Frame; again, no one changes this to OOoFrame. We
might as well simplify things by eliminating the custom styles; but if
not, make the defaults identical.
9) Similarly, make the Figure paragraph style identical to
OOoFigureCaption. The default style for a caption added to a graphic
is Figure; people are better at changing these to OOoFigureCaption,
but many forget. Change the spacing below paragraph for both these
styles to 0.1cm.
10) Include instructions on how to create and insert graphics,
including (a) don't use drawing tools to annotate screenshots or
create diagrams, and (b) what font to use for text in graphics.
11) Should we simplify the table design? I think it looks good, but
applying the changes to alternate rows between a white background and
a 10% grey background are a nuisance. Are they worth the trouble? I
can't decide.
Related changes to style guide:
1) Highlighting of text to indicate user input, dialog/page titles,
buttons and icons, etc: I propose we minimize the use of
bold/italic/color/font-changes, to make it easier for writers and
editors to remember what's done which way. We had a discussion earlier
on the list about this, with (I think) no real conclusion, other than
minimizing or eliminating the use of quotation marks. So: how best to
indicate user input?
2) Style for reference to other chapters in a book should be: Chapter x (Title).
3) Style for reference to other books should be: book title in
italics. Note: For the Getting Started guide, "guide" is not part of
the book's name so it should not be capitalized or italicized.
4) Terminology: as much as possible, we should use the same terms as
the OOo project (and the online help) uses. Two examples: dialog, not
dialog box; and checkbox (one word). There are others. The Docs
Project and Online Help group are AFAIK working on a glossary of terms
and spellings, in an attempt to rationalize usage.
I'm sure there's more...
--Jean
