2009/11/11 Clayton <[email protected]>: >> 6) If/when we ever get the high-priority updates done, then making >> screenshots consistent might be worth the effort, but which o/s should >> we choose? This topic has been debated at some length, btw, both here >> and on the Documentation list, and I return to Point 4 as well. > > This is one that is problematic because not everyone has access to all > operating systems. I, for example, do not have OSX or Windows easily > available, so when I do screen caps I do them in Solaris or Linux (KDE > usually). > > Is it possible to make the screen caps even more generic by removing the > Window title bar from the images? > > C. >
Hello All, On the OS to use: I think it made sense to use WindowsXP Silver theme at the time when WindowsXP was the mainstream OS (and the most downloaded version). We were also extremely lucky to have Peter working on the screenshots (I think that 90%+ of the screenshots in the guides for version 2.x were taken by him). However it is true that very few people used the Silver theme, so if we did not have problems yet, I do not see why we should start having problems now. At the end, if the text is good in explaining how to use the settings, the screenshot is only an eye candy. Regarding the removal of the windows decoration (which we started to do in the Writer and Impress guides when updating to version 3), on one hand it is good as it makes the screenshots taking less real estate and give a more "OS neutral feel", however it also makes the screenshot look uglier and does not guarantee consistency (there will still be differences in the shade of gray of the background and fonts). My proposal: as long as the dialog box screenshot has a good contrast (but no dark themes!) and uses sans serif fonts we should be fine. The main problem for me is with the icons set. While, as I said before screenshots of dialog boxes are not essential (the text is what matters), when it comes to toolbars or icons the image in the guide may be completely different from what the user sees on the screen. Jean pointed out this problem to me when I was writing parts of the Impress guide since I took screenshots using a different icons theme. Even if we stick to the Galaxy theme, many Linux distributions customize OOo so it is not really helping. My proposal: still stick to the Galaxy theme, but maybe put a warning somewhere that icons may look different on different OSs (not sure how practical this is though if we have to do it every time we describe a toolbar or an icon). Cheers, Michele
