On Thu, 2006-09-28 at 11:10 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hello all: > > I’m a complete newbie to the world of Technical Writing. I’ve been > reading as much about the subject on the Web as I can, literally day > and night, and I’ve purchased a couple of TW books. I’m taking a TW > class at a local university in the spring. Although my present job > with the Feds doesn’t involve TW, I do a lot of in-house writing, and > I have a strong technical background – an MS in Information Systems, > and about 13 years of LAN and PC configuration and troubleshooting, as > well as end-user instruction. The administrivia in my job can be a > real pain, but I enjoy the times I get to deal with technology issues. > > I’ve been told by an experienced TW that getting involved in an Open > Source community is the best way to get one’s feet wet, so here I am. > I just installed OO yesterday, and I’m playing with it to get some > familiarity with its features. I’ve looked through the Documentation > Task list, and I’ve read the “Contributing to the Documentation > Project” page. Frankly, I sort of feel like I'm looking up from the > bottom of a long, steep hill. Can someone brand new to both TW and OO > make a useful contribution?
Yup can be a bit intimidating for a new person. Since you looked at the task list, may I suggest you have a look at http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=11576 and http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=29679 (chapter 3 - Writer) with an eye to explaining it. Your work will help the guide and will likely be able to be a standalone HOW-TO. Well you get the idea. > > Furthermore, what further skills do I need to acquire to be a > successful TW? I did do a fair amount of programming (Pascal, Object > PAL) when I was in school, but I'm certainly not a developer. I have > zilch experience writing online help, and from what I've seen, the > Help editors tend to be pretty expensive. Is that an expense I'll > eventually just have to bear? I've done a few simple web pages, enough > to where I'm comfortable with basic HTML. What about XML? Questions, > questions. > Not a lot. Quite simply you have to have a good grasp of grammar, spell reasonably well and be technical enough that answers you get via your research are translatable for our users. You ask about Help. At the moment there is nothing outside of CVS adn you must have signed the JCA in any case. So how can you help Help? Get on and explore the On-Line Help web pages at http://documentation.openoffice.org/ and also subscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] That way you get to participate in the transition from Closed On-line help to Open On-line Help. -- G. Roderick Singleton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> OpenOffice.org
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