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.

3 Likes

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.

1 Like

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/ ?

Thanks in advance for your contributions! It’s always helpful to have another set of eyes. We also welcome suggested wording in bug reports.

I know you said that you’re not interested in editing the guides themselves, but you may nonetheless find our Style Guide to be of interest.

This information is somewhat surprising.

I posted here in this forum in a couple of threads informing on some typos etc., and the reason I did that was because on the Copyright page in the Writer guide we are informed like this:

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to the Documentation Team
Forum at LibreOffice Guides - The Document Foundation Community (registration is
required) or send an email to: loguides@community.documentfoundation.org.

, `

2 Likes

I just went and checked this, and yes, my mistake. Please continue to use the forum to report errors in the User Guides.

We do use Bugzilla for other aspects of the documentation, like Help pages.

rather pile of inconsistencies …

hope at some point a cleanup could be coordinated :expressionless:

Hi Maria (@mlanger )

Thank you for your kind offer.

As community we praise the accuracy of our documentation, so any remarks and improvements are welcome. LibreOffice is a fast evolving software and changes are frequent. We have 2 releases per year and our documentation must follow.

Please use this forum to report mistakes as it is easier than the more formal bugzilla. Our team will handle it and update for the next release.

If your interest in LibreOffice become something greater that ZERO, please get in touch. We are an active community of people having fun in documenting and developing LibreOffice.

Cheers
Olivier

Ask is dedicated to answer the LibO user about the application.

This forum is about guides, documentation, online help, etc

sure …
https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/where-are-the-base-hsqldb-field-column-types-documented/119045/10