[Scribus] Documentation

Gregory Pittman gpittman
Sat May 22 17:26:58 CEST 2004


I think we can all understand the size of the job of updating the 
documentation for Scribus.  What I am wondering is why the documentation 
isn't being done and made available in some kind of modular format, 
especially considering the ever-changing nature of the CVS version.

One can go around in circles at scribus.net trying to find the 
documentation that seems to be promised by the various menus.  Even a 
sketchy and incomplete list of what can be done with, for example, 
Tables, would be of help.  The Changelogs seem a bit too cryptic.

As good as LL's tutorial is, the difficulty with tutorials is that they 
tend to be like a linear, ordered database -- not really designed as a 
reference for the experienced user, and hard to jump from topic to topic 
or easily answer a simple "How do I..." question.

There is a lot to be said about style when it comes to documentation, 
and style is going to be a genetic feature.  The style gets established 
early on, and then the rest conforms to that style.  But the style is 
everything when it comes to usability, and a clumsy style can mean that 
a lot of work can go into something that can only be fixed by redoing 
the whole thing.

I'd be more than willing to help out with the documentation, but it's 
hard if not impossible to help write about a feature if I don't 
understand or even know of all of its capabilities.

Greg Pittman




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