Dave Stevens wrote:
Hi Jean,
Thanks for this and for lots of hard work.
I recently had a project to do (or to contract out, actually, but it was
my project) that involved a mail merge. I wanted to use OpenOffice,
planning to publish not only the merged document but also a detailed
description of the whole process so that the little non-governmental
organizations I work with could duplicate or update the doc as they see
fit and at no cost. At first I didn't realize how to go about the job
and was trying to use the Writer Guide for OO v.2 with the OO v.3
program. A certain amount of grief ensued until I was able to get advice
about where to find the v.3 docs. Then everything went much better.
So I thought about what I might be able to to contribute something back.
In the past on another project a lot of documentation for a project
(mifluz) was being written in English by people who were not native
English speakers. So for a while I proofread these docs to recast some
statements in English idiom and
try to correct spelling and grammatical errors.
Perhaps it would be of value to make an offer to do this here? I already
proofread a magazine published by some friends of mine, perhaps I could
for this project too? What do you think? And who should I be talking to?
I'm one of the people to talk to, because I try to coordinate the work
on the user guides. Numerous people have offered to help with
proofreading, but few have actually done anything, so you're certainly
very welcome to contribute!
Most of the user guide chapters have been worked on extensively over
the years and therefore are in fairly good shape in terms of English
expression, but a few can use some revision into plainer English or a
more how-to style.
This work is done on ODT files through the OOoAuthors website. I am
updating the list of files on our GoogleDocs spreadsheet to show what
level of work each chapter needs (updating to latest version of OOo,
technical review, serious editing, minor editing, indexing, updating
figures, etc.), but when you start reading anything on the Review
List, it's usually obvious what that chapter needs. Unfortunately, the
OOoAuthors website is down at the moment, but I can send you a file
directly if you wanted something to get started on.
BTW, the Google spreadsheet is here:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Asjap9kyrWy_cEpMNl84S3NpVElHTUNDaWZkNlB6V2c&hl=en
In addition, there are many other pages on the Documentation wiki that
are not in the user guides but can definitely use some help from
someone familiar with improving English expression. The problem for
new members is how to distinguish between pages that are up to date
and accurate (but need improvements to wording or organisation) and
those that are out of date or incomplete and so need other work before
(or while) proofing. If you want to work on any of those docs, it's
probably best to ask first, preferably on the
[email protected] list (you need to subscribe first).
--Jean
Jean Hollis Weber
Co-Lead, OOo Documentation
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
