Introduction; I want to review and correct the Writer Guide as I work with Writer

Maria Langer here. I wrote computer how-to books for 22 years (back when a person could make a living doing it). While doing that, it was pretty common for me to learn brand new (often beta) software as I wrote about it. I have a knack for picking things up quickly.

I’ve just made what I thought might be a painful switch from Microsoft Word to Libre Office and will be using Writer for a new book I’m working on. (So far, I’m very impressed, although I see I have to re-learn several features.) Because I need more advanced features and am learning as I’m working, I’ve got the latest Writer Guide open as a PDF in a second monitor and will be consulting it a lot. I’m hoping you will allow me to send (via this forum or other tool) errors, inaccuracies, or omissions I find. They’ll be text and screenshots (where necessary).

I’d like to help out but I have ZERO interest rolling up my sleeves and editing actual Guide documents. I have a plate full of things to get done by the end of May and can’t spare the time. The only reasons I want to help are (1) I hate seeing problematic documentation and (2) I appreciate the work everyone does on making this very viable alternative to Microsoft Office and am willing to lend a hand.

If you’re interested in allowing me to help on these terms, please let me know what to do. Where do I post? Can I just keep expanding one topic? Etc.

If you’re not interested because you don’t think I could be helpful or you’d rather me do something else, let me know that, too. No need to waste my time or yours.

If I don’t hear from anyone, I’ll assume you’re not interested. If that’s the case, well thanks for your efforts anyway, I’m looking forward to learning Writer.

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Hi Maria. Welcome to the community! Olivier, our Documentation Coordinator, can talk you through more of the ins and outs of the community, but in the meantime, our Bugzilla page is a great place to report errors or suggest improvements in the documentation. To file a documentation bug:

  1. Select File a bug > LibreOffice
  2. Select Documentation from the Components dropdown.
  3. Complete the bug report form.
  4. Put something like “Writer Guide” in the Summary field, followed by a brief description, so we know which book to edit.

Reporting through Bugzilla gets it into our workflow, so we can make sure we follow it up.

Thank you. This is exactly what I need to know. Let’s hope I can be a good contributor toward your efforts.

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Hi, Maria

I’m just another member of the LibreOffice community. I have helped with
the guides, the wiki pages, the translation of Help online site, and UI
of the application.

You do not need someone to tell you to start in order to carry out your
help, or your ideas. If you wanna help somehow, just do it. If there is
something you do not know how to do it, just ask for help in
https://community.documentfoundation.org/

We have a thriving community of volunteers, who work with strong
commitment on our spare time.

Celia Palacios

Hi Maria,

I recommend you second the “Writer Guide” with “Designing With LibreOffice” by Bruce Byfield & Jean Hollis Weber. It is available from LibreOffice Bookshelf

Alain Romedenne

:thinking: https://ask.libreoffice.org/ ?