On Wed, 2011-08-03 at 14:29 +1000, Jean Weber wrote: > On 02/08/2011, at 22:11, Tom Davies <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi :) > > > > Would it make sense for the Chapters on each specific app to be repeated as > > an > > overview chapter in each of the guides dedicated to that app? The GS > > chapter on > > "Getting Started with Writer" would be the same as the Writers Guide's > > "Introducing Writer" and editing either in Alfresco would automatically > > update > > the other. > > The chapters in Getting Started are intended to serve a different > purpose to the first chapter of each individual guide. They need to > give a taste of the features in a component without going into too > much detail, as well as an overview of specific features of the UI for > that component and some details on some topics that most new users > want or need to know. > > It is possible to have the common part of the chapters be a file that > is included in both, along with other info as appropriate. I have done > some tests on this. It's fairly straightforward but can be confusing > to uninitiated members of the group, and it doesn't work quite the way > you may be envisioning. > > I've been intending to write up the process, which would also serve > well as a general how-to and also part of the power users guide. I > have notes, so I'll try to move it up the priority list, at least to > get a draft out so people can see what is involved. > > > There is extra info in the Writers Guide's Intro that is basically a brief > > overview of LibreOffice generally. The info there is fairly much the same > > in > > all the other guides so could it form a separate chapter, probably just 2 > > pages. Again, editing it in any guide would update the chapter in all > > guides. > > This does not need to be a separate chapter, just a common file that > is included in each chapter as mentioned above. > > --Jean
I have thought about this some more and I have concluded this what I described is not something to attempt to do for 3.4. It's going to take time to plan and test so it works properly. I don't have the time or energy to pursue this at this point, or even explain all the pros and cons and complications that I can see; but if someone else wants to work on it, feel free. Just remember that what looks good (and relatively easy) to solve one perceived problem (by creating chapters to be used in full, as is, in different books) may cause other problems, some of which we may not discover until we try it. So I recommend we plan for reuse, with a view to implementing it in a later release. Meanwhile, we update the existing docs to 3.4.x. More about that in a separate note. --Jean -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to [email protected] Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/documentation/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
