----- Jeff Prater
On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 11:30 PM, Jean Hollis Weber <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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 In our county, we use OOo (switching to LibO) instead of MS Office just b/c of the cost of upgrading MS Office. There have been several occasions where I wanted to copy/paste all the OOo docs and put them in our intranet site b/c I absolutely hated searching the ODT documents. I think if a new menu options was added to the LibO suite--Help > Online Support--it could probably encourage people to start searching for documentation online. I threw this together real quick but I think focusing the documentation for the web could make the online documentation have a similar look and feel to ODT/PDF documentation. http://support.thoughtreactor.com/1/ I broke this down by application (Writer, Calc, etc.), then by chapter, and within each chapter, I've broken it down further by OOoHeading1. I felt this put enough information on a page to fill it, but not overwhelm the user with information. I never thought about people with limited bandwidth--I guess I don't have to worry about that where I live. :) But, like I said earlier, I think it would be a good idea to export the online documentation to PDF/ODT and include that in the LibO install so the users don't have drain their already limited internet. Also--who creates the included help file within LibO? Is the information separate from from the ODT docs? -- 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 ***
