Hello all,
thank you for your interest in Ubuntu Manual !
I want to say a welcome to the new authors and other contributors as
well and a thank you for the contributors that continue their work !
Ubuntu 12.04 is going to be released in the next hours, the schedule
of the manual is to be confirmed [0] and almost all section have an
author.
It's time to start working on the new manual and provide a great guide
to the community of Ubuntu, and especially the new members of it.
This mail will try to give authors some guidelines and also answer
some possible questions that you have.
Of course it can't answer all questions so feel free to send your
replies.
Before continue reading this mail make sure you've read the "General
Knowledge" section of the following page [1] (check the end of the
mail for the link)
As you've read, contributors share their work on a bazaar branch and
the manual consists of Latex format files.
In the previous manual, we gave the option of submitting LibreOffice
documents on an UbuntuOne shared folder to the authors, instead
of sharing Latex files on the branch. This was a good practice for
those who didn't have the time to learn latex or found it too complex.
After the final submission of their documents me, Hannie, Kevin and
other members of the team translate these documents into latex.
We should give the same option to new authors as well, but i think
that sharing your work through bazaar and writing
your text into latex it's the most direct way of collaboration as the
UbuntuOne folder is private by default whereas the branch is open to
the world.
Latex is like html, you use tags to format the text, that's all. Of
course you don't have to search the whole Internet to find the
command you want to use, Kevin has written a style guide for authors
and other contributors that contain all the Latex commands that
you'll ever need [4], it's a great reference.
For now, as you may haven't installed and played with Latex, this
seems too much of theory and i understand it.
*[1] has all the information on how to get our bazzar branch to your
local computer and how to install Latex.*
Try to install it, if you face any problem post them to the mailing
list. Finally after playing with it, if you see that Latex confuses
and you can't work with it
let me know it in order to create an UbuntuOne folder so as you can
submit your work as LibreOffice docs. Latexalwaysdeserves the
effortthough:).
That's all the techy stuff from now and on, nothing more nothing less.
Now,here is someinformation about how author should do their job:
1) Checkthe material of the previous manual, track changes, make an
outline what their chapter should contain, and share it on [2]
2) Communicate with other authors through the mailing list. Usually
you'll find yourself wanting to know if something is written on an
other part of the manual, or wanting to ask other authors about
something else. It seems that the better the communication though
contributors is the more consistent the manual is. So do communicate,
i want to see the mailing list full of mails !
3) Gather the information and material you need for your section
4) All authors should follow the same *Writing Style*and know the
*target audience*[3].
5) Write your section
Regarding [3], if you think that the Writing Style guidelines and
target group require changes feel free to express yourself.
[0] https://lists.launchpad.net/ubuntu-manual/msg02971.html
[1] http://ubuntu-manual.org/getinvolved/authors
[2] http://pad.ubuntu-uk.org/precise-changes-todo
[3]___http://kevin.godby.org/ubuntu-manual/talks/writingstyle.pdf_
[4] http://files.ubuntu-manual.org/style-guide.pdf
I know... too much information for one day. I just wanted to share
the most necessary information in order to answer to your questions
and as well let you know how to get started and how we work.
To recap, if you have questions from the above mail just ask, then
start with [1] and if you find any problem do post it to the mailing
list. It's almost sure that the Latex or bzr installation will "hit"
somewhere.
Mailing list is a great tool for the team, probably the most important
one. Use it !
Let me know what you think and if you have any questions.
Thank you ! Have a great week !
--John
c7p @ #ubuntu-manual
