On Fri, 2005-09-30 at 11:14 -0400, Mike Meyer wrote: > In <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, G. Roderick Singleton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> typed: > > Don't know about a tutorial but http://documentation.openoffice.org/ has > > User Guides and HOW-TOs that will likely help you. Have a look. > > I hate to complain about people trying to help me, but this advice is > only slightly more useful than "Try googling for your key terms." The > problem is that the documentation web site is apparently designed for > authors developing documentation, *not* for people trying to find > documentation. While documentation authors are important, have my > utmost respect, and certainly deserve a web site - that's not the web > site you want to present to people trying to find documentation. >
Really? The page is generated and only recently has there been an opportunity to customize the page. Until we can find a volunteer to help we must use what we have. Sorry you will not help. BTW, scrolling down would have shown you what we have. > Look at the page. The first real content - ignoring the banners and > nav bars and the like - is "If you were registered and logged in, you > could join this project." I'm not interested in registering, logging > in, or joining the project - I just want to know how to get my work > done. The top banner includes a graphic and login/registration widgets > - again, not of interest to someone looking for documentation. The > left-hand nav menu starts with project tools, including such things as > version control and the issue tracker. The only thing that looks > interesting to users is the "Documents & files" link - but it takes > me to a list of things like templates for people writing OOo > documentation. Not of interest - which means the Project Tools nav > entries are not of interest. Below that we find the Ooo Search tool - > the first thing might actually help me solve my problem. The search tool has MAJOR problems http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=52046 that are not helping with the need for instant gratification. Works is being done to correct this. Now as to the nav bars et cetera these are what we currently must use unless some kind soul decides that volunteering to help make things better is important enough to put their money where there mouth is, so to speak. Like I said above, it's too bad you didn't scroll down a bit. > > That's what makes your advice similar to suggesting googling for it - > it basically points me to the OOo search facility. That's useful, but > I've already tried that, and turned up nothing. I tried it again, and > still got nothing. Below that is a short nav with generic OOo links - > nothing specific to documentation. Scrolling down a page hardly seems to me to be an RTFM or google for it. Perhaps you didn't think that the page might be longer. That's okay. I can understand not knowing how to do that. Please try again and have a look. > > Continuing down the main content, I find project info, which is of no > use to me. Then comes a combo box of projects by language. That's > already set to English, so apparently it's a nop for me (*). I try > Dutch, and sure enough, it takes me to a Dutch documentation > page. Oddly enough, that one looks like it's organized for users, not > authors. To bad I don't read Dutch. After that comes a list of recent > additions. Potentially interesting, but it still seems to be designed > for authors, not users, as authors are more likely to know the > documentation set well enough for this to be useful. Next comes links > to a task list - not for me - and documentation forums. Gotta log into > that so I suspect it's for authors, not users. Finally - so far down > the page I have to scroll to see it - comes a list of available > documents, organized by type. That's the first content on the page > that's useful to users looking for documentation. You are on the English page. Why would you expect to go elsewhere? BTW the NLC pages are quite rich with content. > > Finally, the title on a lot of the pages seems to be > "documentation:". That really doesn't help when it shows up in > bookmarks, history lists, and window titles. Hmm, this sounds as if you know something about page design. Too bad you will not contribute your expertise. > > Informing users of the existence of the documentation project is > certainly worthwhile. It would be a *lot more* worthwhile if the page > you referenced were designed to help users instead of authors. I know > this hasn't been very construtive, as I haven't made any suggestioons > for improving the site, other than the implication of removing those > things that aren't useful to users. That's because I know I don't have > the skills to do a good job of this (just check out my home page for > proof). It's not meant to be destructive, or just to complain. I'm > hoping you'll take it to heart, and redesign the page - or provide a > different page - for users, thus improving the OOo expereince (sic) for > everyone. I can only call for a voluteer to help. Personally I have my hands full just coping with maintaining what we have and getting more. Even though you said you didn't want to participate I have to ask you to do so and help make what we have better. > > I didn't find anything obviously relevant to cross-document linking in > the FAQs, How to's and User guides. I've got some non-obvious things > to look through, but I'd still appreciate pointers or documentation on > the correct way to create dynamic cross-document links. > You asked about updating links. Well Help > Contents > Index > Search term > links;updating is a good place to start. The User Guides also cover this. You seem to expect that someone will do research for you and give instant answers. As a busy volunteer, I do not have time to do others research. What I do have time for is to try and make the docs as good as possible. Others, such as the OOoAuthors crew are doing that as are the writers for each NLC. Please try and help. You obviously have expertise that we need. Join the project and help. Thanks for your notes. Oh, one more thing, you can get excellent support from any of the consultants listed on http://bizdev.openoffice.org/project/bizdev/consultants.html for a fee. > <mike > > > *) This uses the common ugly hack of a JavaScript select event to > trigger the jump. That makes it unusable for users who worry about > security. The solution is to add something like <NOSCRIPT><INPUT > TYPE=SUBMIT VALUE="GO"></NOSCRIPT> along with the appropriate form and > server-side support. Not hard, and it's the kind of thing that > separates a quality site from the vast majority of the web. -- PLEASE KEEP MESSAGES ON THE LIST. OpenOffice.org Documentation Co-Lead http://documentation.openoffice.org/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
