Terminology: "selecting" is not enough!

Hi, :slight_smile:

Yes, we had the discussion about what variety of Engish to use a while
back. The consensus at the time was US spelling and terminology.

IMHO, one of the biggest aids to comprehensibility is careful and
thoughtful punctation.

But I also try not to be lazy in my English and to be careful about
relative pronouns [1] and subordinating conjunctions [2].

One good idea, as suggested by Barbara or Hal, is to build-up a
separate and brief glossary of terminology explaining our conventions.
It could be useful to end users but it would especially be an aid for
translators.

As I mentioned previously, "activate" and "deactivate" are terms I use
a lot, but I do tend to vary my vocabulary so that the style isn't too
stilted and wooden. I generally attribute two ha'porth of common sense
to the reader.

My 2 cents...

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_pronoun
[2] http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000377.htm

David Nelson

Hi David et al:

This is somewhat what I was wondering today. I thought that it would be useful if instead there were a "LibreOffice Style Manual" that we could all share between documentation, website, design and marketing. Such an example is the Google style manual pages[1]. All of the different NL groups could develop their own and these would be a point of reference for users and members when in search of usage, formatting or styling questions.

Cheers

Marc

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style

Hi Marc,

Hi, :slight_smile:

Yes, we had the discussion about what variety of Engish to use a while
back. The consensus at the time was US spelling and terminology.

IMHO, one of the biggest aids to comprehensibility is careful and
thoughtful punctation.

But I also try not to be lazy in my English and to be careful about
relative pronouns [1] and subordinating conjunctions [2].

One good idea, as suggested by Barbara or Hal, is to build-up a
separate and brief glossary of terminology explaining our conventions.
It could be useful to end users but it would especially be an aid for
translators.

As I mentioned previously, "activate" and "deactivate" are terms I use
a lot, but I do tend to vary my vocabulary so that the style isn't too
stilted and wooden. I generally attribute two ha'porth of common sense
to the reader.

My 2 cents...

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_pronoun
[2] http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000377.htm

David Nelson

Hi David et al:

This is somewhat what I was wondering today. I thought that it would be
useful if instead there were a "LibreOffice Style Manual" that we could
all share between documentation, website, design and marketing. Such an
example is the Google style manual pages[1]. All of the different NL
groups could develop their own and these would be a point of reference
for users and members when in search of usage, formatting or styling
questions.

The l10n teams have already style guides, glossaries, terminology and TMX files. I can send you the French ones if you like (l10nFR section is not up so not available for LO currently, only for OOo).
They are available to the Documentation and Marketing teams but not used from what I've seen in the FR community, mostly because this is all oriented for localization when they create their own material.
There is also the fact that the more you bind people to rules or constraints, the less they are going to participate. The most important is the respect of the UI labels, if the rest is different it's not very important. Several communities have a lot of documentations, developed/written in very different ways and users seems to find what they need with that any way.

Kind regards
Sophie

Thanks Sophie for this information.

So, the point here it that there is no central location where we can find this information on our wiki. When people were with OOo, was this information posted publicly on the OOo wiki? Or is it just files that people pass on from one person to the next?

It would be interesting to have all that information (from all groups) just available on the wiki for public viewing and reference.

Cheers

Marc

Hi Marc,
[...]

Thanks Sophie for this information.

So, the point here it that there is no central location where we can
find this information on our wiki. When people were with OOo, was this
information posted publicly on the OOo wiki? Or is it just files that
people pass on from one person to the next?

It would be interesting to have all that information (from all groups)
just available on the wiki for public viewing and reference.

It is on the OOo FR site and will be on the LibO FR wiki. The l1on process was not organized yet so I didn't settle this part on the wiki (most of the time I'm alone to work on it, so the need is not under pressure :wink:
The central location for native language groups is their site and their wiki, the international things most of the time have no interest for them, this is not where they feel "at home".

Kind regards
Sophie

Ah. OK. So it will eventually be migrated onto our site. Thanks for all the work you do. We know that it takes a lot of time and that we are often a little impatient for the things we would like to have at our disposal. I can relate as I am trying to keep the Marketing section organized and it can often get really busy.

Maybe I'll check in on this later and if there is a need for any help in migrating the files from the OOo site I could help out.

Cheers and thanks

Marc

Hi Marc,

Hi Marc,
[...]

Thanks Sophie for this information.

So, the point here it that there is no central location where we can
find this information on our wiki. When people were with OOo, was this
information posted publicly on the OOo wiki? Or is it just files that
people pass on from one person to the next?

It would be interesting to have all that information (from all groups)
just available on the wiki for public viewing and reference.

It is on the OOo FR site and will be on the LibO FR wiki. The l1on
process was not organized yet so I didn't settle this part on the wiki
(most of the time I'm alone to work on it, so the need is not under
pressure :wink:
The central location for native language groups is their site and their
wiki, the international things most of the time have no interest for
them, this is not where they feel "at home".

Kind regards
Sophie

Ah. OK. So it will eventually be migrated onto our site.

It will be, it's just that the organization of the l10n teams is not finished yet, and the FR part is not set.

  Thanks for all

the work you do. We know that it takes a lot of time and that we are
often a little impatient for the things we would like to have at our
disposal. I can relate as I am trying to keep the Marketing section
organized and it can often get really busy.

Thanks for the work you do too :slight_smile:

Maybe I'll check in on this later and if there is a need for any help in
migrating the files from the OOo site I could help out.

Ok, thanks for your offer to help. The month is ending next week so I guess it will be online next month :wink:
The English guides will be there:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/TipsTricksl10n
The French one will be there:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/FR/L10n

Kind regards
Sophie

Be advised that standard US English is somewhat fussy--especially in legalese--in its "that/who/which" usage, whereas UK English is not. One tip is that "which" is typically preceded by a comma, but "that" is not. The reasons to use one or the other word simply will become better understood after seeing them employed in actual practice--assuming that the authors did them OK. "who" also employs declensions--whom, whose--as a remnant of English being originally derived from German.
/
The Chicago Manual of Style/ is a decent style guide for most US-publishing grammar and punctuation issues, in addition to US terminology. The current edition (15th) is its first version to address IT usage as it applies to publishing. Copies (new or used) can be purchased very cheaply via Amazon. [I got mine years ago for half price via a promotion at Amazon, plus no S&H costs.]

Gary