Jeff, thanks for that clarification. Some comments interleaved below. --Jean
On Fri, 2010-12-03 at 23:10 -0500, Jeff Prater wrote: > I think the best way to start the process would be to copy the completed, > published LibO documents. I wouldn't start from scratch since all of the > work has already been compiled and only minor changes are required to > convert the documents from OOo to LibO. But I wouldn't start the transition > until version 3.3 of the LibO documents have been published. Okay, we're in agreement there. > > I agree that the first transition to a wiki would take some time, but I > think it would be worth it in the end. Would this documentation be in a wiki > format or would it be in the form of articles on the Drupal site? Or is that > thinking too far in advance? I believe this is still under discussion. > > The only reason I'm against putting all the effort into ODT documents is I > don't think it is the _best_ medium to provide documentation to the users. Just to be clear: I don't think ODT is the best medium for providing docs to users, but I do think it is the best medium to use as the source documents from which a variety of outputs (PDF, wiki, print, other) can be derived, thus providing for the needs and preferences of a range of users. > Do we have any statistical data detailing user opinions on > their preferred medium of documentation delivery? I don't think so. Anecdotal evidence only. IMO no one medium will make everyone happy, because of the wide range of age, experience, computer sophistication, etc among users of office suite software. One thing that could, and should, influence decisions on how to deliver docs (not how to produce them) is: what audiences is marketing targeting? If marketing is targeting mainly web-savvy groups such as students, then the primary delivery mechanism for information can, and probably should, be different from what might be best for a more diverse or less-savvy audience. The audience segments that I am most familiar with are, typically, not comfortable doing web lookups (regardless of the format the info is in once they find it) and often do not have a reliable, easy to use, affordable connection to the web. These audience segments include small businesses, small volunteer organisations such as church groups, and seniors (btw, there is a fair overlap between these groups). People in these groups very much need free (in both senses) software, but their information-gathering methods are very different from, say, students or people in in larger businesses. --Jean > > > On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 10:03 PM, Jean Hollis Weber <[email protected]>wrote: > > > > > > I would like to pursue this line of thought a bit further. How do you > > propose to start the process? From scratch, or from the existing OOo > > docs? If from scratch, why? > > > > If from the existing OOo docs, then are you saying they should be > > wikified before people make the LibO-specific changes? Wikifying > > existing docs is a lot of work, so it seems to me that the first step > > should be updating the content of the existing ODTs and then wikifying > > them. After that, maintenance could occur on the wiki, as you suggest. > > Personally, I don't think that is a good idea for reasons I stated in > > previous notes, but the group could choose to go that way. > > > > IMO for the first release of LibO, ideally we would have PDFs and > > printed books available, as well as info on the wiki. Started from the > > ODTs is the fastest way to do all of that. For future releases, the > > method could be quite different. > > > > --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 ***
