Re: [libreoffice-documentation] managing expectations and being realistic
Having a policy is all very well, but really it's up to the people who do the work. For example, if no one will do the Calc Guide, it doesn't get done. No policy will change that. This is why some guides were updated to 4.0, but others not until 4.1: no one available to do them. For now, Writer Guide 4.2 will be finished; Draw Guide will be done for 4.3; GS will skip 4.3 and go to 4.4 unless someone commits to an update sooner. The others: who knows? Will someone do Calc or Math? --Jean On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 7:33 PM, Tom Davies tomc...@gmail.com wrote: Hi :) This team consistently does far more work than most other Documentation Teams i've seen in almost any other project. MS Office only manages 1 set in 3-4 years. Looking down the list of Published Guides we can see that all guides (apart from 2) have had at least 1 completed version in the 4.x.x line. GS has had 2. Writer is over half-way through it's 2nd. It's only the Base Handbook that hasn't had any and frankly i'm impressed that there is one at all. It would be nice to get a new one but it might be better to skip several branches and get the one that covers the newer back-end. It seems a good policy to deliberately skip at least 1 branch, maybe 2. Lets say each Guide can skip 2 branches quite comfortably. That way there is under half the guides to do each time. That seems a much more realistic goal to me and means you can feel justifiably chuffed with the amazing amount of work that you do rather than feeling bad about not having achieved unrealistic targets. So lets say that since the Draw Guide already has a 4.1.x branch done and dusted that it does not need a 4.2.x and probably not a 4.3.x either. Any changes or additional functionality can be pieced together by users if they can't figure it out. The existing Guide gives plenty of help for people to understand how Draw works so people should be able to figure out how other functionality fits in and what the over-all ways of thinking are. The Math Guide's latest was the 4.0.x so that could probably use a 4.3.x. It might be really good to finish off the Writer's 4.2.x since it's over halfway done already. Or would it be easier to move straight to a 4.3.x? or just leave it as is and leave it until the 4.4.x and then try to do a complete guide for that branch? If we do decide to set a policy of skipping every other branch then skipping the GS makes a lot of sense. Do we really need a 4.3.x for the GS? I think most people are going to find that the existing 4.2.x GS Guide is more than enough. If we set a policy then new people can be guided to work on Guides that fit into that policy. Obviously if they have strong reasons for going outside policy then they can try that and it would be very positive but many people starting here want to be given tasks so that they can become familiar with the process and feel like part of a team. If we decide to set a policy of skipping every other branch for ALL guides then for the 4.3.x branch we would need; Writer, Calc, Math, Draw and maybe Base-Handbook for the 4.4.x we would need; GS, Impress, If we choose to skip 2 branches for each guide, except for the GS and maybe Writer then we 'only' need a 4.3.x for; Writer, Math and maybe the Base handbook For the 4.4.x we would need; GS, maybe Writer, Calc, Draw. So skipping 2 branches for all but the GS and Writer would make it smoother and more manageable. It'd mean that when the Base Handbook needs to be done that there are not so many other distractions. Skipping only 1 branch but for all guides would mean more hard-work soonest but would leave more room for other types of documentation in the 4.4.x phase. So what do people think? Should we deliberately set a policy of not doing a full set for each release (since that is proving impossible anyway)? If so should the team aim to do half or about a third of the guides each time? Regards from Tom :) -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: documentation+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org 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 -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: documentation+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org 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
Re: [libreoffice-documentation] managing expectations and being realistic
Hi :) If/when new people join the group how do they know what to start on? What do we tell them? If we could say that a specific guide is next in line to be updated then they could just start on that straight-away, or they could then say that they would prefer to work on something else. At the moment people just stand around waiting for them to guess what might be good. Also it might be easier to recruit new people for the team by saying that some specific guide needs work. Regards from Tom :) On 19 August 2014 13:10, Jean Weber jeanwe...@gmail.com wrote: Having a policy is all very well, but really it's up to the people who do the work. For example, if no one will do the Calc Guide, it doesn't get done. No policy will change that. This is why some guides were updated to 4.0, but others not until 4.1: no one available to do them. For now, Writer Guide 4.2 will be finished; Draw Guide will be done for 4.3; GS will skip 4.3 and go to 4.4 unless someone commits to an update sooner. The others: who knows? Will someone do Calc or Math? --Jean On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 7:33 PM, Tom Davies tomc...@gmail.com wrote: Hi :) This team consistently does far more work than most other Documentation Teams i've seen in almost any other project. MS Office only manages 1 set in 3-4 years. Looking down the list of Published Guides we can see that all guides (apart from 2) have had at least 1 completed version in the 4.x.x line. GS has had 2. Writer is over half-way through it's 2nd. It's only the Base Handbook that hasn't had any and frankly i'm impressed that there is one at all. It would be nice to get a new one but it might be better to skip several branches and get the one that covers the newer back-end. It seems a good policy to deliberately skip at least 1 branch, maybe 2. Lets say each Guide can skip 2 branches quite comfortably. That way there is under half the guides to do each time. That seems a much more realistic goal to me and means you can feel justifiably chuffed with the amazing amount of work that you do rather than feeling bad about not having achieved unrealistic targets. So lets say that since the Draw Guide already has a 4.1.x branch done and dusted that it does not need a 4.2.x and probably not a 4.3.x either. Any changes or additional functionality can be pieced together by users if they can't figure it out. The existing Guide gives plenty of help for people to understand how Draw works so people should be able to figure out how other functionality fits in and what the over-all ways of thinking are. The Math Guide's latest was the 4.0.x so that could probably use a 4.3.x. It might be really good to finish off the Writer's 4.2.x since it's over halfway done already. Or would it be easier to move straight to a 4.3.x? or just leave it as is and leave it until the 4.4.x and then try to do a complete guide for that branch? If we do decide to set a policy of skipping every other branch then skipping the GS makes a lot of sense. Do we really need a 4.3.x for the GS? I think most people are going to find that the existing 4.2.x GS Guide is more than enough. If we set a policy then new people can be guided to work on Guides that fit into that policy. Obviously if they have strong reasons for going outside policy then they can try that and it would be very positive but many people starting here want to be given tasks so that they can become familiar with the process and feel like part of a team. If we decide to set a policy of skipping every other branch for ALL guides then for the 4.3.x branch we would need; Writer, Calc, Math, Draw and maybe Base-Handbook for the 4.4.x we would need; GS, Impress, If we choose to skip 2 branches for each guide, except for the GS and maybe Writer then we 'only' need a 4.3.x for; Writer, Math and maybe the Base handbook For the 4.4.x we would need; GS, maybe Writer, Calc, Draw. So skipping 2 branches for all but the GS and Writer would make it smoother and more manageable. It'd mean that when the Base Handbook needs to be done that there are not so many other distractions. Skipping only 1 branch but for all guides would mean more hard-work soonest but would leave more room for other types of documentation in the 4.4.x phase. So what do people think? Should we deliberately set a policy of not doing a full set for each release (since that is proving impossible anyway)? If so should the team aim to do half or about a third of the guides each time? Regards from Tom :) -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: documentation+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org 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
Re: [libreoffice-documentation] managing expectations and being realistic
Hello all, I started integrating Hazel's translations of the German Base 4.2 Handbook into the English 3.5 about a week ago. Chapter 2 is just about ready to go; realistically, about a chapter a week is the rate at which I can work on this(but see below.) I think it'd be worthwhile for me to keep working on that, even though the German 4.3 handbook is out now. The changes are cumulative, and text rarely gets deleted, so everything that's in 4.2 is probably going to be in 4.3. (I can do a quick comparison of the German 4.2 and 4.3 to confirm that.) As I said, about a chapter a week is what I can do, and even that's optimistic. But if the team really wants to make a push to get all the manuals updated to the current version, I can rearrange some commitments and make this more of a priority. Let me know. Alan On Tue, 8/19/14, Tom Davies tomc...@gmail.com wrote: Subject: Re: [libreoffice-documentation] managing expectations and being realistic To: Jean Weber jeanwe...@gmail.com Cc: Documentation@global.libreoffice.org documentation@global.libreoffice.org Date: Tuesday, August 19, 2014, 8:33 AM Hi :) If/when new people join the group how do they know what to start on? What do we tell them? If we could say that a specific guide is next in line to be updated then they could just start on that straight-away, or they could then say that they would prefer to work on something else. At the moment people just stand around waiting for them to guess what might be good. Also it might be easier to recruit new people for the team by saying that some specific guide needs work. Regards from Tom :) On 19 August 2014 13:10, Jean Weber jeanwe...@gmail.com wrote: Having a policy is all very well, but really it's up to the people who do the work. For example, if no one will do the Calc Guide, it doesn't get done. No policy will change that. This is why some guides were updated to 4.0, but others not until 4.1: no one available to do them. For now, Writer Guide 4.2 will be finished; Draw Guide will be done for 4.3; GS will skip 4.3 and go to 4.4 unless someone commits to an update sooner. The others: who knows? Will someone do Calc or Math? --Jean On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 7:33 PM, Tom Davies tomc...@gmail.com wrote: Hi :) This team consistently does far more work than most other Documentation Teams i've seen in almost any other project. MS Office only manages 1 set in 3-4 years. Looking down the list of Published Guides we can see that all guides (apart from 2) have had at least 1 completed version in the 4.x.x line. GS has had 2. Writer is over half-way through it's 2nd. It's only the Base Handbook that hasn't had any and frankly i'm impressed that there is one at all. It would be nice to get a new one but it might be better to skip several branches and get the one that covers the newer back-end. It seems a good policy to deliberately skip at least 1 branch, maybe 2. Lets say each Guide can skip 2 branches quite comfortably. That way there is under half the guides to do each time. That seems a much more realistic goal to me and means you can feel justifiably chuffed with the amazing amount of work that you do rather than feeling bad about not having achieved unrealistic targets. So lets say that since the Draw Guide already has a 4.1.x branch done and dusted that it does not need a 4.2.x and probably not a 4.3.x either. Any changes or additional functionality can be pieced together by users if they can't figure it out. The existing Guide gives plenty of help for people to understand how Draw works so people should be able to figure out how other functionality fits in and what the over-all ways of thinking are. The Math Guide's latest was the 4.0.x so that could probably use a 4.3.x. It might be really good to finish off the Writer's 4.2.x since it's over halfway done already. Or would it be easier to move straight to a 4.3.x? or just leave it as is and leave it until the 4.4.x and then try to do a complete guide for that branch? If we do decide to set a policy of skipping every other branch then skipping the GS makes a lot of sense. Do we really need a 4.3.x for the GS? I think most people are going to find that the existing 4.2.x GS Guide is more than enough. If we set a policy then new people can be guided to work on Guides that fit into that policy. Obviously if they have strong reasons for going outside policy then they can try that and it would be very positive but many people starting here want to be given tasks so that they can become familiar with the process and feel like part of a team. If we decide to set a policy of skipping every
Re: [libreoffice-documentation] managing expectations and being realistic
Hi Alan, that's great news that you are working on the Base handbook. Please don't feel rushed and do everything in your own time. You have a real life and that is more important. So keep some extra time for your family. :) Sigrid -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: documentation+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org 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
