WG7401-IntroducingWriter

[Tsveti]

Hi, my name is Tsveti.
I’ve been reading here for a while, trying to see an area where I could be helpful.
So, finally I did some editing on the WG7301-IntroducingWriter Chapter, since I didn’t see any documents in the 7.4. folder and also nothing in the Work in progress folder.
I wanted to use NextCloud to share the file, as that seems to be the procedure, so the document with my suggestions could be reviewed and eventually be of some use. But It says I don’t have permission to upload or create files there.
I could use some guidance of how to proceed. Maybe there’s something I didn’t get quite well.

Regards,
Tsveti

[ilmari]

See step three in Getting Access to the New LibreOffice Documentation Cloud Service - The Document Foundation Wiki

[Tsveti]

Thanks for the response! I’ve already done step three and i have access to the LibreOffice Documentation folders. That’s how I got the file i chose to work on.
The problem is that for some reason I can’t upload any files there so it can be reviewed.

[jeanweber]

@ohallot or someone with appropriate authority needs to authorise your login to be able to upload files. I don’t know who else can do it.

[Tsveti]

I’ll do that then. I just wanted to be sure I’m not missing something, before I contact him.
Thanks and have a great day!

[ohallot]

Hi.
I have granted Tsveti full access to the Documentation cloud folders.
Regards

[Tsveti]

Thank you! Truly appreciated.
File is uploaded and ready for reviews. Work in progress folder 7.4

[jeanweber]

I am looking at the file. Many of your marginal comments are in a different alphabet. Cyrillic? Some comments have both English and Cyrillic. What has happened there?

I will annotate the file with other comments on our changes when I have a chance.

[Tsveti]

I thought that the comments were deleted since it showed them with that crossed line. Didn’t know they still appear. Deleting comments in LO seems a little over complicated. That might be something to work on. Anyway. I uploaded the document without them. Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for pointing it out and for your work on the file.

I’m new with that so I tried a small thing for a start. Proposals are not life changing, I agree, but they are not all that minor either and I think they are an optimization and make the document better.

[jeanweber]

First, some more questions:
Where did you get the file you started with, and what version of
LibreOffice did you use for editing it?
Its properties show the template as “Normal” which is not one of ours,
and some of the styles are displaying incorrectly formatted. (The most
conspicuous of these are the Notes and Tips headings, where the image
used is very small.) The page styles are all wrong and include two
called “Converted1” and “Converted2”. The list styles include 14 that
are not in our template, named WWNum1, WWNum2, etc. The character
styles include many named ListLabel 1, etc. Text Body is displaying
with justified margins, not left-aligned as defined in our template.

This looks like it was edited in Microsoft Word.

Moving on… I have uploaded an annotated file. Here are some general
comments; some others are in the file.

Although some of your suggestions for rewording are an improvement,
I’m sorry to say that most are unnecessary and will not be accepted. I
have not indicated in the file which are which.

Of more importance, a few suggestions have changed the meaning of a
sentence or paragraph in a way that makes it incorrect. I have marked
them in the file. These do make me realise I need to reword those
sentences to be more clear, so that’s useful.

Also, you failed to note a change in the program that has made one
paragraph out of date and a new paragraph needed: the Sidebar deck
“Manage Changes” is no longer experimental. Checking for program
changes is the most important part of updating or reviewing a chapter.

Jean

[Tsveti]

Hi, Jean!
Thank you again for the review of the document and for all the notes. I really appreciate the time you spend.
I downloaded the initial file from the WG 7.3. folder. My understanding was it should be the last official one.
I used LO to edit it. Microsoft Word was used only for the comments, it just happened that way, but they are just for my use plus they shouldn’t affect anything else. So I’m surprised they do. I didn’t see those differences in style when I was looking the document on my computer. I apologize. I would correct it if I did.
Regarding the version of LO, like everyone else I guess, I have a very limited free time to work on that, so it took me a while to finish the document. Somewhere in the middle, I saw there’s a new LO version. I wasn’t sure if it’s a good idea to change anything in the middle. Plus, my version was downloaded literally a few months ago. I guess, I didn’t expected that it would be that important in that case.

Regarding the suggestions. It’s of course, your decision what you’ll accept or eventually use. I’m happy there’s also useful ones. I didn’t want to interfere with the writing style, so I tried more mild approach. I would prefer some more bullets and numbering on some places, for example; ), but I do get the choice not to use them that much. I’ll see where the changes made the meaning incorrect, that’s very useful for me too, since it’s not a thing I would like to allow anymore.

Now, regarding the changes in program, I used mostly the 7.4. release notes to see what was changed.
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/7.4
I didn’t see that change there. Is there some other place or document I could use to check the changes? I would appreciate if you could give me some directions on that.
And also, I would be very grateful If you could direct me to something suitable where I could be useful for the LO and improve my technical writing skills. I could really use some advice from someone with so clear view on the whole picture.

Tsveti

[jeanweber]

Yes, that was the correct file. The LO version was okay. Updating LO half way through editing is okay. The problem was that you opened the file in MSWord and then saved it from Word. That will mess it up even if you make no changes. Many LO files are fully compatible with Word, but our user guide chapters are not. This is because we have some custom styles that don’t convert well even though they look okay.

The Release Notes do not mention everything that has changed. They are mostly about functionality, much of it behind the scenes and not affecting what the user sees. Unfortunately for writing user guides, a lot of little changes in the UI are not mentioned in the Release Notes. Sometimes Olivier or someone mentions a change on this forum, but that’s easy to miss or forget. I find most of the differences by comparing the new UI to what’s in the previous guide. I miss a lot, too.

I’m not sure what to suggest you work on next. When I’m next at my computer, I’ll look at my notes. Meanwhile, someone else might have an idea.

Jean

[jeanweber]

@Tsveti I apologise for being grumpy in previous messages. I’ve now been through your review in detail and found two important places where you discovered changes or errors that I had missed - so thank you very much for that. One is the description for Selection mode on the Status bar. The other is the final step (previously missing) under Saving documents automatically. I’ve now updated the file with some of your suggestions and some changes of my own and put it in the Writer 7.4 Work in Progress folder. I have moved the previous two files (yours and mine) to the Archive folder.
Jean

[Tsveti]

Thanks, Jean! It’s nice to know it was useful.
I saw that you did a lot of work on the WG Chapters. If it’s ok, I’ll see some other chapters there and write back only if I see something that seems to me more important. Of course, I’ll see eventually other documents too. And I’ll try to update to 7.5 if that would work better.
I assume there’s a reason that not every change is reflected in the Release Notes, although if would be obviously much more effective if that could happen. Now that I know it’s not all there, I could pay more attention.

[jeanweber]

@Tsveti I annotated the files I put in the WG7.4 folder, so you and other new contributors can see the sort of things I look for in addition to what’s in the Release Notes. Sometimes my changes are things that should have gone into the previous book but were overlooked. I probably missed some things, too; I always do.

If you want to look at other 7.4 chapters that I haven’t edited, and update them or mark things you find, such as screenshots that need replacing - or anything else, please feel free.

Please add any comments on other 7.4 chapters to the thread “Writer Guide 7.4 Status”. Thank you!

Jean