On Fri, 2010-12-03 at 20:53 +0530, Narayan Aras wrote: > Hi all, > > I do not know if this is the right forum (and the right time) to put this > idea, but why are we circulating odt/pdf files for proofreading? > > I have written a 380-page user manual in odt; and also written several help > docs in wiki format. > The difference was odt writing was a single-author effort, but wiki was > supposed to be collaborative. > > Besides, mediawiki has extension that can export to odt/pdf any time and > make it available for offline reading or printing. > > See the example here: http://www.den4b.com/wiki/ReNamer > At the time of starting the wiki, I already had written most of the manual in > odt format. > So I saved the individual chapters in mediawiki format, and pasted them in > the wiki pages. > I had to upload all figures separately and link them. But on the whole the > experience was smooth. > > Wiki also eliminates the proofreading effort, as the others can directly edit > the original effort. > > Just my two cents.
This was discussed here earlier. For OOo/LibO user guides (docs aimed at end users, not developers), ODT as a source doc works better (at least in the short term) for these reasons: 1) LibO docs team is using the OOo docs as a starting point, and the OOo docs are in ODT. (The user docs on the OOo wiki are not up to date.) 2) Going from ODT to wiki gives a good layout, but going from wiki to ODT (or PDF) does not; the layout sucks. User guides have too many illustrations, tables, and other features; Mmch fixing up is necessary after export from wiki to ODT if you want a professional looking result. 3) Going from ODT to PDF is easy, and layout is preserved. As stated in (2), going from wiki to PDF gives poor layout that needs much work. 4) Using a wiki does NOT eliminate the proofreading effort. In my experience, using a wiki as the source document results in MORE need for proofreading. Althugh reviewing/editing may be done on the wiki, tracking the changes is not as easy as in ODT; asking questions and getting answers is not as easy; edited wiki pages often/usually need further editing for grammar, comprehension, etc; and much more checking of page layout etc is needed after export to ODT. 5) At OOo most of the people interested in working on user guides say they prefer to work in the ODT files. It may turn out to be different at LibO. --Jean -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to [email protected] List archive: http://www.libreoffice.org/lists/documentation/ *** All posts to this list are publicly archived for eternity ***
