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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KDE Help Center
From:       Markus Mauder <m.mauder () gmx ! net>
Date:       2005-05-16 18:48:05
Message-ID: 200505162048.06480.m.mauder () gmx ! net
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Thanks for your response.

> > Currently the interface is identical to the "global" one. The only thing,
> > which makes it KPDF's help, is that its manual is selected: The side bar
> > is expanded to reveal KPDF's top level entry (not more!) and its title
> > page is displayed in the content area.
>
> It's identical because it's the same application. It's no different than
> opening konqueror from the panel with no url, or doing it by clicking a
> link. One way you get it empty, the other way it's started with something
> already open.
[snip]
> It's not a per application help system - we don't have such a thing :)

Acknowledged :)
The point I was trying to make was that it looks a lot more like the library 
of Alexandria than help on KPDF. Of course, if it isn't meant to look like a 
per application help system, then there is nothing wrong with this.

> Completely removing the ability to go from "just this doc" to "all of the
> help" was considered and dismissed, for various reasons (I forget
> specifically, but have written down around here on another computer - I'll
> dig those notes out for you.)

I am very interested to know those reasons. It appears that help on only one 
application would be a lot easier to navigate and understand, given the 
context from which the user opened the help system in the first place.


>> Most of text that is visible at start-up is the GNU FDL header.
>> I am not sure if we are legally bound to have the license at the very top.
>> Maybe the purpose is to make the open nature of KDE clear to the user. I
>> can only guess here unfortunatelly.
> > suggestion:
> >   Use a smaller font for the FDL or encourage the user to participate in
> >  the development of KDE in a more casual way.
> How good are you at XSLT?

Not very good. But if you feel this is something a computer science student 
with little experience developing software could do, I'd be eager to try my 
best at it.

> I have been attempting to fix this (it's a bug) for ~7 months, and
> coincidentally had a bit of a breakthrough just this afternoon. 
> There are legal constraints on where the notice may be however 
> (and it's already in a smaller font than the rest of the text) (if you
> really care I'll explain the specific problem, but this one at least can be
> marked down as a bug in the (very slow) process of being fixed.) 
> Ironically my breakthrough resulted in the TOC for the doc going AWOL, and

What is the bug? 


> > 4) The manual's front-page features another table of contents
> > suggestion:
> >  Use the sidebar for this.
>
> The problem there is if you type help:/kpdf in konqueror (or follow such a
> link from another document), there is then no table of contents at all, and
> navigating the document would be more difficult.
I didn't know this was possible. I can understand that given this scenario the 
solution has to be rather more difficult.
One idea I had was to generate another document holding the TOC and either 
embed it in the rest of manual at runtime or display it in something akin to 
a frame. Of course, I am not the developer around here, you are.


> There is also a quite
> substantial design document in the sources, with a whole lot of things you
> covered here and more, and most of it is coming to similar conclusions.

I couldn't find this document. Where is it?


Thanks again,
- Markus
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