DUG into XML status, no trans call for test3
by Karsten Wade
I made a unilateral decision at the end of last week that we were not
going to push for making the DUG available for translation for test3.
The main reason is that we want to be sure that what we have written is
good for end-users before so much effort is put into translating it.
The English phrase for this is, "We want it to be more baked."
This also happens to make it easier on me; I haven't had the time to do
the conversion to XML. I'm working on that this week. The goal is to
be able to announce following test3 there there is a new guide to try,
etc. This means a Web-only release for test3, which is much easier to
do.
Thanks - Karsten
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Karsten Wade, RHCE, 108 Editor ^ Fedora Documentation Project
Sr. Developer Relations Mgr. | fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
quaid.108.redhat.com | gpg key: AD0E0C41
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17 years, 7 months
meeting time change
by Karsten Wade
Reminder for steering committee members and FYI to all.
The FDSCo meetings have moved to a new time, same day:
17:00 PDT/20:00 EDT/Midnight UTC #fedora-docs
This switch is to accommodate active membership. We'll try this out and
see if it meets our needs.
Thanks to all who make a point of attending or lurking FDSCo meetings.
Hope this is not an inconvenience to you.
- Karsten
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Karsten Wade, RHCE, 108 Editor ^ Fedora Documentation Project
Sr. Developer Relations Mgr. | fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
quaid.108.redhat.com | gpg key: AD0E0C41
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17 years, 7 months
empowering the user and traditional tech writing - style discussion
by Karsten Wade
We need to discuss our writing style approach; I think it's too late for
FC6, so we need to stick with what works for now. But Paul W. Frields
challenged me with the idea of empowering the user and having a specific
style to support that.
In traditional tech writing, we try not to use pronouns yet keep an
active voice. It makes for a cleaner writing, easier to translate, and
has fewer assumptions implied about the reader, which helps to make it
more accessible. It also sounds less like marketspeak[1] and
cheerleader-writing[2].
For example:
"You can click on Applications > Sound & Video > CD Player to start the
audio CD application."
v.
"Click on Applications > Sound & Video > CD Player to start the audio CD
application."
And so forth.
However, a blanket rule to "never use 'you'" might be wrong. At the
least, we can discuss here what we want to do. Perhaps we can break
some new ground, or at least join the 21st century. ;-D
- Karsten
[1] Markestpeak == language used in marketing products/services, which
is deliberately personal
[2] Cheerleader-writing == my term for writing with lots of exclamation
points! You'll love it! Or not! But you just can't make it stop!
Yes, I used to edit my high school newspaper.
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Karsten Wade, RHCE, 108 Editor ^ Fedora Documentation Project
Sr. Developer Relations Mgr. | fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
quaid.108.redhat.com | gpg key: AD0E0C41
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17 years, 7 months
PDF version of docs/guides
by Dimitris Glezos
The discussion about the writing style and the effect it has reminded me that it
would be a good idea to make a PDF format of our guides. People prefer to read
tutorials in print. (Especially if it's the installation guide!)
Furthermore, I believe that writing documentation with a printable result in
mind, probably produces better content. To be honest, if there was a way we
could get the desktop guide and probably a troubleshoot guide in PDF, I might
jump into translating them, install Fedora for my father at home tomorrow and
hand him the guides for the rest.
So, suggestions: First fix the PDF-creation problems and having a goal in the
back of our minds to create a nice printable PDF with the most useful guides
bundled together (installation, desktop, administration, FAQ and Troubleshoot)?
Last discussions I found about PDFs are the following:
* http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2006-March/msg00145.html
* http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2006-January/msg00179.html
Any thoughts about this? Suggestions, steps, problems, blah?
-dim
--
Dimitris Glezos
Jabber ID: glezos(a)jabber.org, GPG: 0xA5A04C3B
http://dimitris.glezos.com/
"He who gives up functionality for ease of use
loses both and deserves neither." (Anonymous)
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17 years, 7 months