Editors Needed for User Manual Basic

[rgleason]

The manual has been reconfigured into

• User Manual Basic - to become an offline manual.
• User Manual Advanced -to augment the offline manual.

The majority of links and media have been corrected.
Quick Start pages and links are now in place.

The next steps are:
1. Review and improve the structure.
2. Edit all pages:
- Replace all old screenshots.
- Simplify and edit down text, eliminating unnecessary verbiage.
- User Manual Basic needs to be small and portable.

We need User Volunteers to accomplish this task.
This job needs to be completed soon to accompany OpenCPN.
The manual has not been rewritten since 2018-19.

Skills needed are Editorial and ability to create screenshots of OpenCPN.
This is your opportunity to contribute and to improve our manual.

Please indicate your willingness to join this team.
Thank you.

[rgleason]

Users have been complaining about the User Manual. The deal is this. The programmers are busy. The users have to make and maintain their own manual.
I have spent a considerable amount of time preparing the new manual, but it needs to be edited. I don't have time for that too. Therefore some volunteer users are going to have to do that part otherwise the manual will just have to rot.

Please read this page about User Community. Sorry, but the users are definitely responsible for the Manual otherwise there would be no programming. The Manual is the User's responsibility.


Those who are volunteering, please add your name below.

[rgleason]

215 Views and no volunteers. What a PITA. All Takers.

[river]

Some things that might help recruitment:


1. What is the manual for? Apparently OpenCPN, but that was not immediately obvious. Put it in the title.


2. Who runs OpenCPN? What is the organisation? How is it funded? Who am I working for?



3. What does the job pay? If nothing, is there some funding that could be applied for?



4. How do you expect the work to be licenced? Is there a CLA?


5. Who is welcome? Is there a code of conduct? In the linked wiki page, it says "anybody familiar with it will find his way around it."


6. What support is available? I would not take this on unless I knew developers had time to answer my questions, for example.


I would also suggest not insulting potential volunteers and trying to make them feel guilty.

[MerMike]

I'll help.

How do I get started?

What are the standards for font and size when making callouts on screenshots?

Is there a specific version you want screenshots taken from?

Who will divide the work amomg the overwhelming number of eager volunteers? /s

[rgleason]

Thanks Mer Mike, more later, going out, but PM me with your email and preferred User Name, I'll be sending you a PW.



@river See

https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...:usercommunity


and Read the lower part.

https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=opencpn


We have an older Editors manual here.
https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...it_user_manual

[flpaoli]

@rgleason, I'm a relatively new user but have already benefited from OpenCPN and am interested in helping with editing the User Manual. I've been told by other people I'm a concise communicator, so who knows, that might be useful. I'll PM you my email.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by river

Some things that might help recruitment ...
2. Who runs OpenCPN? What is the organisation? How is it funded? Who am I working for? ...

About OpenCPN ➥ https://opencpn.org/OpenCPN/info/about.html
Meet the Team [We're boaters. We're coders.] ➥ https://opencpn.org/OpenCPN/info/team.html

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by MerMike

I'll help.

How do I get started?

You've sent me a PM with your email and preferred user name.
I will send you a PW and make you an editor.

Originally Posted by MerMike

What are the standards for font and size when making callouts on screenshots?

The standards for font and size are kind of built in, it is quite simple in this respect, we can select headings, bullets lists, numbered lists, bold, slant, etc. Dokuwiki is the opensource Wiki that we use, it also uses a template that can be specialized, right now we are using Bootstrap3 template. Dokuwiki Editing Syntax

Originally Posted by MerMike

Is there a specific version you want screenshots taken from?

Very good question. We are using the unreleased OpenCPN 5.9 version which is available in Cloudsmith. What OS are you using? You will need to install that as a parallel installation which will work alongside your current release version.

Originally Posted by MerMike

Who will divide the work among the overwhelming number of eager volunteers? /s

Another good question.

We've been working on the "Quick Start" pages for new users most recently. I've reconfigured the entire manual to separate it into Basic and Advanced and have been checking and correcting al the links (which were going back to the OLD manual). I think I've got most of them fixed now.

The introductory pages have been reconfigured and we've been working on GNSS setup and Connections to simplify for new users. Those pages will probably change as the program changes, so that work is on hold, and we should probably leave the editing for more advanced users.

Initially we will focus on the entire TOOLBAR doing one section after another (with the exception of Connections). Please note that the Options section is quite extensive and much of our work will be in this area. The goals are (in order):
1. Screenshots to match OpenCPN 5.9 (Menus have changed).
2. Review the text for additions and corrections to the menus.
3. Review each section, whittle it down, paring unnecessary words, simplify and make it clear to the "new user".
4. Consolidate pages when possible.
5. When a page or namespace gets too long or unwieldy, add subpages when appropriate.
6. Our goal is to build the final User Manual Basic as a linked pdf and epub documents that can be downloaded as a reliable and up to date off-line manual. Therefore overall size is important.

Skills needed:

It will be important to have a good technique to save screenshots of OpenCPN, then be able to Crop, resize, compress and save as png and jpg.
So initially get familiar with those tools. I can help if you are using windows.

Then we will be replacing old screenshot images of OpenCPN from 2019 with the current version. Dokuwiki User Manual has a section on Edit Window and Editing and Media Manager As I said earlier, I have made an Editors Manual in this section which covers what I have learned about Dokuwiki, and how we use it for OpenCPN. There are also Learning Videos available

Once the screenshots in a section or page, are updated, we will review and edit the text for accuracy, organization, need, verbosity and from the point of view of a new user.

This process will give you the opportunity to really learn the workings of OpenCPN, help everyone using OpenCPN, and it will give us a good "newer user" perspective to help with the manual.


Thank you for joining the team effort here!
@MerMike Your email with pw will be coming.
@Fipaoli Please PM me with your email and preferred username, if you haven't done so.

[JSSailem]

Originally Posted by rgleason

215 Views and no volunteers. What a PITA. All Takers.

I am a new user of OpenCPN. I have begun to explore your manual. If you would like some help just let me know how to get started. Log in? Where to submit suggested changes? How to help?

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by JSSailem

I am a new user of OpenCPN. I have begun to explore your manual. If you would like some help just let me know how to get started. Log in? Where to submit suggested changes? How to help?

JSSailem JSherman and Flpaoli, I've sent two emails. Welcome to the team.

[MerMike]

JPG Screenshot:

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by MerMike

JPG Screenshot:

Looks Good Mike. Thanks. We'll wait for the others screenshots.


LATER:
This one is 14 DPI, we've been using 240 DPI because they get too fuzzy.
Can you do one at 240 DPI, but with the same image? Also we're using something like Lanzos3 filter.
Thanks.

[MerMike]

GIMP-2.10 doesn't support Lanczos. I used NoHalo. I increased the pixels/in to 240.

[JSSailem]

I have attached two files. I used my PC to capture the image. This gave me a JPG file. I then used the Mac to edit the file and save it in PNG format.

This gave me a jpg file of 55KB and a PNG file of 215KB

My jpg save did not give me control of the file size. I can alter the process but Preview on the MAC uses a slider from best to least to alter file size. If specific goals need to be met (file sizes), I'll have to use a different app.