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.

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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.

, `

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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

@mlanger Coming in to this thread late here, as I have been away from the project for several months. I am the person who usually keeps the Writer Guide up to date. I have been working on it for so many years that I often don’t see problems in the book, so I welcome any corrections or suggestions for improvements. I don’t see later posts from you, but perhaps I have missed them, and I notice that you mentioned you would be very busy until the end of May. I am starting to revise the book for next year’s release, so please let me know if you have any input. Thank you!
Jean

I’ll be very honest with you: I have found a lot of omissions in the book, which I purchased a hard copy of to refer to as I make the painful (for me) transition from Word to Writer. It’s extremely frustrating to me that a handful of the things I used to be able to do in Word appear to be impossible in Writer. And there are more than a few things that work so differently in Writer that I struggle to figure them out. In many cases, I have not found the information I need in the book. I can’t think of an example right now, but I do remember being extremely frustrated a few weeks ago when I simply could not get Writer to do something I think it’s supposed to be able to do.

Please understand that I used to write books about how to use computer applications for a living. My books, especially in Peachpit’s “Bible” and Osborne/McGraw Hill’s “Quicken Official Guide” series, were extremely thorough. If a dialog box had an option, I explained it. If I was providing instructions on how to complete a specific task, I provided all steps, normally in a numbered step-by-step presentation, usually with generous screenshots. This is what I did for a living for more than 20 years and I made a very good living doing it.

I am working on a travel book, which I had to set aside for a while, and was looking forward to providing clarifications on the Guide as I went along. That’s when I made my initial contact. Unfortunately, it became difficult for me to provide feedback while I was trying to get work done. I’m not accustomed to working within the boundaries of a forum, which I find extremely time-consuming to deal with. (That’s my problem, not yours.) With all that said, I suspect that I will not be very helpful to you at all and I apologize for misleading you. I just wasn’t expecting the adjustment from Word to Writer to be so difficult for me.

I’d love to be able to help, but the sad reality is that I just don’t have free time to spare.

Here’s something to consider for the next edition of the book: why not have an edition that covers the basics of the software and then create shorter books to cover specific topics? Instead of having one big book trying to cover every single feature (and, unfortunately, failing), make a book that new users can turn to to get started with Writer with minimal frustration. Then make much smaller books about topics like cross referencing, using sections, creating tables, etc. If I’m not mistaken, you are using print on demand for printed versions of the book. It should be relatively easy to create and maintain multiple manuscripts, each assigned to one or more people, and upload revised additions for future printing.

Whatever you decide, best of luck! I’m glad that I was able to turn to Writer to fill the gap left by Word, even though I struggle to use it efficiently and effectively. I’ll get there, eventually.

Maria Langer | 509-699-8044

Then make much smaller books about topics like cross referencing, using sections, creating tables, etc.

Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is what the Guide pages of the Help are intended to do. Although they could probably do with updating/expansion/being linked in the guides.

The guides of each LibreOffice component are designed to treat all the characteristics of said component and are structured in chapters for a more effective consultation. Please, see the index

As for the distribution and format of the content, unfortunately it is not possible to content each person because all of us have differents criteria.

If what you are looking for is a less extensive guide, there is the Getting Started Guide that is an introductory guide for all LibreOffice components and has a chapter hopefully dedicated to Writer, as well as several chapters dedicated to common matters for several components.

As a software guide writer, I’m sure you will understand that the use of different programs requires dedication and learning, even if they are programs that pursue the same purpose (text edition in the case that concerns us) and although LibreOffice Writer is so powerful or more than MS Word, you have to understand that they are different programs and the work methods can vary.

As for your complaint:

  • Apart of the guides, you can also consult the interactive online help.

  • You must also understand that if you detect a guide failure and do not describe the failure or indicate where it is, we can hardly correct this failure

bantoniof

I’m sorry, but I did not realize that my response to an email message was going out to an entire group of people. Please remove me from this thread; as I said in my original response, I don’t have the time to deal with this.

Please understand that I was responding to a question about the Libre Writer Guide. Not the website. Not the forums. Not other places I could look up information online. I was responding to a question about the Guide. So you can re-read my response with that in mind. Or not. I don’t care. I don’t have the time to deal with your bruised egos.

And one more thing: don’t you think I tried to look up information online when I needed it? Do you think I just gave up and decided to whine to you folks about it? Your documentation is seriously lacking in how to information for advanced features. I made the decision to leave Microsoft office products because I did not like the inclusion of AI, their subscription policy, and the fact that they are apparently exchanging data from my computer with their server without me understanding what it is. I did not WANT to stop using Microsoft Word. I’ve used word for more than 35 years now and it irks me to no end that I have to drop what I’m doing and spend an hour or more looking up how to use features in Writer that I know how to use in Word — features that may not even exist!

Turn off your defense mechanisms and look at your Guide from the point of view from a new user. Just leave me out of it.

Maria Langer

Hi Maria,

You are probably subscribed to the mailing list. Responses are also posted to a thread on the Document Foundation forum. There should be an Unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email, if you do not want to receive updates.