Hi Brynn, I think we should probably get a good overview about the book's current structure first, before we venture into making major changes.
The current sections are meant to gently guide people from drawing *with* geometrical shapes (as a scaffolding), to drawing complex shapes, to using extras. This is a very different approach from the one I use in my intro tutorial, for example, where I explain some basics first, then go to trying them out. The book we are working on is thought out in a different manner. It doesn't teach theory so much as it allows people to explore on their own, and only introduces the concepts when they are needed. It's like you would do it when you explain Inkscape to kids, or to people who want to learn in a less intellectual way. I like this approach a lot, as it doesn't require people to understand everything before they can start creating their first drawings. I find it would be a loss, if we turned this concept upside down, by adding /all/ the theory to the beginning. That said, I think it could be useful to quickly explain how to use the palette, so beginners can color their drawings, and to ask people to tweak some of the more badly chosen default settings (the four 'scale with...' buttons and the Autosave feature), which will bite them in the behind if not set to a useful value right from the start. I agree that a new chapter for the Align+Distribute dialog (in the advanced section), as well as one for Copy/Duplicate/Delete make a lot of sense. I would not include the transform dialog in this book at all. Its sheer amount of options is a bit frightening. You will find it easier to discuss this, though, when the translation part is mostly done and you have all the relevant info available (which is why I am currently concentrating on translating, one or more chapters every day). Anyone who can translate French -> English is welcome to join - there are 43 (mostly short) chapters left to work on, as of today, May 20th 2017. Kind Regards, Maren Am 18.05.2017 um 19:24 schrieb brynn: > Hi Friends, > First I just want to thank Maren again, for getting this manual set > up, > so that we can move forward with translating and editing. 3 Cheers!!! > > During our early discussions, I had mentioned, and she agreed, that > since the Docs list covers kind of a lot of territory (website, new manual, > various other documentation) we might want to identify discussions pertaining > to > the manual by something in the title of message. That's why I put [Manual] > at > the beginning of the title of this message. I'm not sure if it should maybe > go > at the end of the title? Or maybe should be [Man]? > > My main reason for this message, is because I want to start a > discussion > about overall organization of the chapters. To me, it makes sense to get > that > ironed out in the beginning. Because as it grows, it could become harder and > harder to change how it's organized. > > (Note that in this message I'm more describing the chapter and > section > titles, because right after this, I want to send another message on the > subject > of possibly improving section and chapter titles. Eventually, they'll come > together, but for getting everyone's ideas out, it's probably better to have > separate threads.) > > So here are some thoughts I'm having on organization. If everyone > else > wants to wait, that's fine too. Just speak up :-) > > To me, the Selection tool is a global tool and does not belong under > Geometric Shapes. That implies either it can only be used with the shape > tools, > or used best with them. And that's not the case at all, in my view. > > I'm thinking we need a new major section, that would go between > Introduction and Geometric Shapes. Maybe it would be called something like > The > Basics or Getting Started? The purpose of it would be to quickly make > newbies > productive, while linking to the relevant parts of the manual, at each step. > Then the rest of the manual would by and large be about the same (except I'll > probably suggest a different order for some of chapters later). This could > really almost be in the form of a tutorial, although not necessarily. > > This section I'm proposing would include the following > -- the current Interface chapter > -- the current Managing the Workspace chapter(which appears to be about > Document > Properties dialog) > -- the current Selection tool > -- the current Fill and Stroke dialog > -- a new chapter which explains the difference between raster and vector > (unless > this already exists and I haven't found it yet?) > -- current Importing raster images > -- current exporting PNG > -- current Copying/duplicating > -- current Saving your work (these last 3 are currently way down the list, > in > advanced section) (see discussion below) > -- a new chapter introducing transparency, but linking to deeper applications > in > Fill/Color and/or Advanced sections > -- current Align and Distrib from Path section to here > -- maybe Transform dialog? (not sure if currently exists) > > (not in that order - we can discuss the order later, if everyone agrees to > this > new section) > > I'm having a hesitation about including the Fill and Stroke dialog in > this section. Most of it is about color and transparency. But because of > the > Stroke Style tab, it becomes more of a global tool. I generally have it open > always. Other comments? > > The reason I would include Importing here, is because many newbies > start > out with Inkscape by needing to trace a raster image (auto-trace or manual). > I > tend to think of importing as part of setting up my document. Any other > thoughts? > > To me, you can't get more global than copying/duplicating (except > maybe > selection tool). For Saving Your Work, it just doesn't make sense (to me) to > have that in advanced section. I realize for many formats, it is advanced > material. But I'm thinking -- have a simple explanation in this new section, > but then have links to the more advanced info, which most newbies won't need, > just to get started. > > > For the section on Paths, I would suggest moving Strokes, Markers, > and > Custom Markers, out of the Fill/Colors section, into Paths section. That > seems > obvious to me, but I'd be interested to hear reasons for keeping them with > Fill/Color. Ordering of fill/stroke/marker here too. > > Is the Transform dialog covered anywhere? I don't see it by browsing > the chapters, but maybe is there somewhere? If not, I would put either in > the > Geometric Shapes section, or maybe even the new section. > > After some discussion, we can propose a good order for the chapters. > Of > course, I can only read those which have been translated. So maybe the > current > order will make more sense when I can read them. > > But for now, what do you all think about the idea of a new section? > > All best, > brynn > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most > engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot > _______________________________________________ > Inkscape-docs mailing list > Inkscape-docs@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-docs > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Inkscape-docs mailing list Inkscape-docs@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-docs
