Keith, Thanks for the clarification about not expecting general volunteers to deal with the wiki. Jean
On Mon, Jul 6, 2020 at 7:06 AM Keith N. McKenna <keith.mcke...@comcast.net> wrote: > > Hi Jean; > Please see responses in-line > On 7/2/2020 8:50 PM, Jean Weber wrote: > > Keith, > > Question: Is the AOO documentation effort committed to publishing > > primarily on the wiki? Why not just produce ODT and PDF and make them > > available for download from the wiki? That's what we did for OOo back > > in the day. (At one point I did convert all the ODT files to wiki > > format, but that was a secondary effort.) > > > > The original intent formulated on the doc@ list was to do all the user > documentation on-line in the wiki as a set of heavily linked articles on > the MWiki. The problem has been the lack of expertise in tech writing in > general, mentoring and getting volunteers trained in the MWiki > formatting. My longer term goal is to use odt files as the source > documents and get them under Revision Control and then use another tool > to create the Wiki content, and other formats such as EPUB that we could > then distribute from the wiki along with the odt files and PDFs. > > > I think that expecting or requiring volunteers to deal with a wiki as > > well as becoming familiar with AOO itself is asking too much. If you > > want to publish on a wiki, I think you really need at least one person > > dedicated to converting Writer files to wiki format. > > IMX, DocBook is MUCH too difficult for most volunteers, though I > > understand there are reasonable front-ends available; I may be out of > > date. However, I think it's still asking too much of a volunteer to > > deal with more than one format. > > I do not expect them to have to deal with the wiki or especially with > DocBook, that would be the province of a very small number of people > willing to take the time and learn how to use them. The only thing the > normal volunteer would have to deal with would be using AOO itself. The > more I look at it the more I am hesitant about DocBook, even though > Writer is capable of outputting the the DocBook XML file. A few people > have mentioned Pandoc as an alternative converter and I have installed > it and am starting to investigate it more. > > > > > Producing the docs using Writer also provides an easy way to review > > and edit them, using change tracking. > > Exactly my thinking as well as using our own product to create the > documentation is good marketing. > > > > > Attracting, mentoring, and keeping volunteers (with the necessary > > skills) is the biggest problem, and it won't be solved by technolog > That is very true and will always be something to deal with over the > life time of the project. My hope is that by using Writer with its heavy > emphasis on styles and templates to make it easier to attract people > who are then willing to stay active. Will it work? Only time will tell. > > > BTW, I am not available to mentor or otherwise assist, because I am > > already overcommitted to another project. > > I completely understand that issue as I have been there myself more than > once. I truly appreciate you taking the time to review the document and > comment on it. > > Regards > Keith > > > > Jean > > > > > > On Fri, Jul 3, 2020 at 1:25 AM Keith N. McKenna > > <keith.mcke...@comcast.net> wrote: > >> > >> This is a reminder that I am looking for input from this list as how to > >> best move forward on re-invigorating the Documentation effort for AOO > >> again the proposal document is attached to this e-mail. Thank you in > >> advance for your cooperation. > >> > >> Regards > >> Keith > >> > >> On 6/13/2020 9:40 PM, Keith N. McKenna wrote: > >>> It has been pointed out to me that I neglected to attach the document in > >>> the original post. It is now an attachment to this post. > >>> > >>> On 6/13/2020 4:52 PM, Keith N. McKenna wrote: > >>>> Greetings all; > >>>> > >>>> As the subject states I am proposing a new methodology to try to > >>>> reinvigorate the stalled documentation effort for AOO. For the first > >>>> step in this I have created a draft document that lays out the problems > >>>> and also some proposed solutions. As all most of you have been involved > >>>> in the documentation effort I would appreciate your comments and > >>>> suggested changes to it. The document was created in Writer and has > >>>> record and read changes turned on. Feel free to make any changes or > >>>> additions you feel could be helpful. Of course comments or suggestions > >>>> are welcome as replies to the to this mailing list as well. > >>>> > >>>> Thank you all in advance for taking time to contribute to this effort > >>>> and I hope many of you will return to the documentation team as we move > >>>> forward with this. > >>>> > >>>> Regards > >>>> Keith N. McKenna > >>>> > >>>> > >>> > >> > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: doc-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: doc-h...@openoffice.apache.org
