--- Ryan Paul <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm new to the GNOME documentation team, and I would > really like to help > out and do some work for this cycle, but I'm having > a little bit of > trouble getting started. I have read through most of > the style guide and > part of the handbook, and I guess I'm just feeling a > bit intimidated by > all the details. When I first decided to > participate, I thought I would > be able to simply jump in and start writing. > Unfortunately, my > experience as a journalist isn't quite as applicable > to doc writing as I > had initially imagined. > > I think that I might be more successful if I could > start with some > straightforward, specific tasks. Perhaps somebody > could give me some > simple assignments, get me started, and help me > avoid common pitfalls? I > don't want to impose on anyone, but I think I'm > going to need guidance > in order to be productive.
Hello Ryan! Welcome to the docs team :) I remember all too well being intimidated by the masses of guidelines and technical documents that abound. I've tried to list the bare essentials on this wiki page: http://live.gnome.org/DocumentationProject/Join (in point #5) but even that is a bit overwhelming. It does cover the common pitfalls though: 1. tone (though as you have experience as a journalist, you should be fine with that) 2. making tons of screenshots, which is largely a waste of time 3. using the right terms There is a sort of newbies' paradox in that once you've got over the initial learning curve you tend to forget just how bad it was, and then you hopelessly confuse the next lot of newbies by throwing out remarks such as 'can you make me a patch for that?' If I do that, please kick me :) There is a list of small things that need to be done on http://live.gnome.org/DocumentationProject/Tasks but looking at it now, not many of those are suitable for just diving in. Some things I would appreciate help on though: * http://live.gnome.org/Gedit/Manual -- I'm using this page to plan the structure of the gedit manual that I'm revamping. I'd welcome any input on this. * As part of the gedit revamp, I want to add something to the User Guide on the absolute basics of working with text: the insertion cursor, how to select whole words, keyboard shortcuts for text, etc. * Following on from that, we UG needs a section about the clipboard. Again, absolute basics. The intended audience is the absolute novice, someone like my grandmother (who was astounded when I once told her she could copy and paste *between* different applications). You don't need to work with DocBook source or with CVS to contribute -- you can just create a suitable page on the wiki and write there. Also, if there's anything you happen to spot that you think needs improving, please let us know. Just an email or a bug report saying 'Change this sentence to this' would be fine. Finally, track down anything that's making joining the docs project difficult, and tell us how to improve it. Joachim ___________________________________________________________ Does your mail provider give you FREE antivirus protection? Get Yahoo! Mail http://uk.mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ gnome-doc-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-doc-list
