Frank Peters wrote:
What sort of rework do you envision?
Hanging out on oooforum, I've seen that a big part of the volume is
generated by the same questions over and over. I'd like to comb
through the forum and mailing lists and match up the FAQ with the
things that routinely trip people up and develop a resource to help
with those things in the most accessible format possible.
The current FAQ is ok, but it's often more like a manual written in
Q&A format. That can be effective in some situations, but I suspect
it's not a great way to actually help people who have run into a
problem.
E.g., I wonder if some of the questions would be recognizable to new
users. I would consider re-wording the question to be closer to the
way people actually ask them.
People don't generally ask "Where do I download dictionaries for other
languages?" They ask "How can I use OOo in my language"?
Also, it has things like this that I've never seen asked:
Where can I get documentation on installation?
How do I perform a silent install?
How does OpenOffice.org work over NFS?
How do I setup SAMBA to get the best performance with OOo?
Valuable information I suppose, but not really FAQs.
What I have in mind for presentation is this:
A page with one question and answer, in the most succinct and clear
terms possible. No jargon; not an article, just 'where do I click to
make this thing work'. The answer should have glossary links if
necessary and links to basic background information as appropriate.
When that question coems up in a forum or mailing list, it should be
easy to link right to the question/answer, not "See the FAQ" or a link
to a category page with a dozen questions to sift through.
The answer page would then have links to:
- An expanded answer or article (e.g. an app Guide section)
- A template or sample document
- Discussion thread(s)--to comment on the answer material or ask a
related question.
- A link to (or list of) related questions
There would be a front page with some top-level categories and an FAQ
search; the second-level would have all the questions together, so you
could do a simple text search in the browser, and also scan for
related questions.
Perhaps the user-facing pages should be built from a database of
questions and answers, but the answers and articles would need to be
in a forum or wiki so that they can easily be added to and evolved.
I'm not quite clear on how to best implement this. I think I'll just
start working on a list and try to get a sample section together to
see how it goes.
Any and all suggestions welcome of course.
<Joe
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