Hi,
please find some comments inline. I shortened the cited texts.
On 10/15/09 00:45, James E. Lang wrote:
I am a big fan of OOo. My remarks below are not intended to be an attack on
anyone. I have included personal examples of problems I have had with
the OOo
documentation. I suppose I am straying from the original topic. If so, I'm
truly sorry.
this is the discuss mailing list, so let's discuss. Finding help is
certainly a usability issue, so the subject of this thread is almost right.
I find the installed Help just fine. It's just that I often don't find
what I
need when I look there. I also find it near impossible to find specific
information that I need from any list or forum archives. I'm sure I'm
not alone
so please be tolerant of people like me.
a) I'd suggest both PDF and ODF formats. The latter so that the user
can add notes, documentation , etc that they (the individual) thinks
is necessary/useful.
may be adding personal notes to the installed Help is a good idea.
BTW, you can copy and paste every Help page to a text document. No
problem to create your own Help document over time.
I, for one, have no experience in updating a wiki page. I also would not
rely
too strongly on a wiki page that I had updated. It would contain
information
that I have learned by experience and it would be as accurate as I could
make
it but we all think we have learned certain things that simply are not so.
I'm confident that the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_intelligence
will take care of any errors, let's say on the FAQ pages of the Wiki
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/FAQ
The Wiki would be empty if only perfect contributors were allowed.
I would also add that not all of us are as savvy as you are. Not knowing
where
to look is a big part of the problem. As for myself, online manuals in the
format of the documents I have examined from the Documentation wiki are not
easily searched and therefor it is very frustrating to try to use them.
I concur that there is a lot of documentation available at the OOo web
sites.
It just is not easily found or used by the novice user who needs it the
most.
The normal Wiki search sucks. On the
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation main page we have
two search boxes: the normal at top right, and a special one following
the text: "type here to search this Documentation Wiki". This uses a
local Google search and returns valid results.
Part of the problem is, of course, that in particular in the open
source
paradigm the "sexy" part is updating the code while the documentation is
often
relegated to the status of the ignored step child. This is not just a
problem
for OOo.
so get some experience how to update Wiki pages and do it. It is quite
easy, and the community would thank you.
On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 15:54, Gene Young wrote:
In what way is the help "totally inadequate"?
a) Minor, but significant for the affected population groups: Not
all localizations have translated the help file into the local
patoise.
The online documentation is no better in this regard. It is stated to be
English language documentation.
?? the English versions of OOo get English Help. Many other language
versions get translated Help, while some still use the English Help at
this time, because of the high word count.
b) Content is the help file is not applicable to the current version
of OOo;
This should never be the case but unfortunately it is way too often. And
I'm
not just speaking of OOo in this regard.
please give at least one example.
c) Functions in OOo are not described in the help file.
see above
I'm not sure what you mean by that response.
that response means that we want to know an example of "Functions in OOo
that are not described in Help" so that we can describe them in Help.
d) Help files are not indexed by the expected word/phrase.
Documentation that has a table of contents and an index and that resides
in a
single file or web page would be a significant improvement so that it
can be
searched from end to end.
The installed Help has a table of contents and an index and a full text
search.
Again, the installed Help is only one tool for enhancing one's
experience with
any product.
well, the installed Help is a reference for normal users how to use the
product. The installed Help doesn't intend to explain each and every
advanced use of the product: there are better media to do this, like the
Programmers Guide, the developers mailing lists, and more. The installed
Help links to these advanced resources wherever possible. Normally we
assume that someone who really wants to know the answer to some very
difficult questions will know how and where to find them. For example
here, on the mailing lists, or the forum, or using a web search machine.
The installed Help is not a tutorial and it is not a Beginners Guide to
OpenOffice.org, because those media already exist and are readily
available (most of them for free).
...Going to the local Borders etc. or to Amazon for books
about OOo is a lost cause. But looking online is not a whole lot better.
when you go to amazon.com and enter Openoffice as search word, you'll
get 1505 hits this morning.
If you really need a printed manual, I personally would direct you to
the web stores that are run by the OpenOffice.org community or that are
affiliated with the community. One example is
http://openoffice.blogs.com/bookresources/
Uwe
--
u...@openoffice.org - Technical Writer
StarOffice - Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Hamburg, Germany
http://documentation.openoffice.org/
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation
http://blogs.sun.com/oootnt
http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum
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