---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: "Raphael Langerhorst" Reply-To: For discussion about KOffice Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 18:03:41 +0100 (MET) >> On Friday 30 January 2004 16:05, Seth Kurtzberg wrote: >> > I've been watching the discussion and wondering when this would come >> > up. The justification for doing this rather than enhancing the online >> > documentation is? >> > >> >> A good point, I totally agree with you that the parts of the book covering >> the >> individual apps can just as well be added to the online help, there are >> only >> a few differences for me: >> >> Motivation for writing a book would be: >> * you can put more background knowledge/... in it wheras the online help >> should be straight forward >> * you can build on top of previous chapters in the book, like "a guided >> tour >> through KOffice" wheras the online help should be understandable when you >> only read that very bit of it you need (IMHO). > >sorry, forgot about that one: >* people that read the online doc already have KOffice installed... which >means that they at least consider using it as an office suite (or their distro >installed it by default). With a book you normally can reach people that are >"evaluating" things before they use it. And I think the time where many >people blindly use MS Office is more and more past, There are more than 5 books on >OOo in German language alone for example. My feeling is that people a) >should have the possibiltiy to evaluate their software and b) that people that >truly evaluate software are often first searching for a book about it. > Thats a good point, however what will make people want to search out and buy a book on an office app they don't know about? There would have to be some way to dray interest to the book. >> >> >> But I fully agree with you that actually the online help should be >> improved >> rather than writing a full book. > >but this statement still holds for sure. What about this timeline: > >first... >* improving/completing the online help >then... >* writing the book which can partly be derived/based on the online help > >I think with the roadmap(?) we have for KOffice we have enough time for >both: online help and a book, provided that there are enough people working on >these. I think documentation is important, although less than 10% are actually >using it... but I myself just bought a book about OpenOffice.org (and didn't >want to read the online help because I prefer reading a "real" book, although >the online help of OpenOffice.org is surely very good(?)). > >Online help IMO is important while working with the application (yes, I >sometimes read a few things up in OOo's online help) while a book is important >for getting to know the application. > I personally think that online help should be short and simple. If I'm in an app and need to know how to do something I should be able to within a couple clicks drill down to those instructions. I don't want to stop and read background of the app, etc. I find myself not using the online help much because its too time consuming. For example I was playing with frames to see what I could do with outlining. I tried to drap and drop a frame in the document structure pane but it didn't allow me to do so. Pull up the help, scroll down a few pages and find the chapter on frames, skim down, hit next, skim down some more, next, etc. I think online help should be no more than one screen full of information at a time so I can quickly get the answer and go. > >And, another reason for writing a book would be: >* KOffice has more potential because it builds on very good ground (QT/KDE) >whereas OOo has nothing they can build upon (=much more source code = harder >to handle = redundant work). So in the long run KOffice will be the better >application - and a book would make good PR. But I must really say that I'm sad >about the fact that there need to be multiple OSS office suites, but maybe >this is needed because of diverse(?) interest of people... > Having multiple office apps isn't necessarily a bad thing. If we only had one then we would begin to fall into the lack of choice trap of the Windows world. There are those Linux users who dislike KDE for whatever reason and would still prefer to use OO. I think the biggest thing we need to do is standardize file formats so one doesn't have to import/export. Example now is the windows world, the standard is pretty much MSOffice docs, you can be sure that if you e-mail a resume in word 2000 the receiver will have word 2000, its become an assumption that anyone you send your docs to or anyone whom downloads from your website will be able to open a word doc with minimal work. Once we get to a standard format we can then start to make that same assumption and simply send documents without worry if the user has the program installed with proper import filters. Thats something we already know, but what it will allow if the user to use his preference of program to open the doc so there will still be room to compete/differ in useability. >greetings, >Raphael > >-- >+++ Mailpower für Multimedia-Begeisterte: http://www.gmx.net/topmail +++ >250 MB Mailbox, 1 GB Online-Festplatte, 100 FreeSMS. Jetzt kostenlos testen! > >____________________________________ >koffice mailing list >koffice@mail.kde.org >To unsubscribe please visit: >https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/koffice > ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the HostPortal WebMail system at ninefamily.com ____________________________________ koffice mailing list koffice@mail.kde.org To unsubscribe please visit: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/koffice