Re: dia outline

[Eric Baudais <drake x8b4e5002 dhcp okstate edu>]

Malcolm-

Welcome to the GDP.

On Mon, Sep 04, 2000 at 11:40:37AM +1100, Malcolm Tredinnick wrote:
> Probably time to decloak on this list and contribute something...
> 
> I have two questions about this outline:
> 
> (1) A lot of it if pretty specific to the particular way that Dia works, isn't
> it? I'm wondering which parts you see as being part of the template. I like the
> idea of having a flow of instructions that let the beginner get started
> immediately and let the more advanced person learn everything they want to about
> specific components. That is certainly a model to preserve in a template. Are
> there other "common" portions that I've overlooked?

The changes I see is the elmination of a menu reference section, which I think is 
needed without context sensitive help.  All the sections are divided up into 
specific topics related to Dia.  The templates have the section organized according 
to the User Interface (UI).  You pointed out the quick start guide.  I really like 
this as the beginner, who wants to get a feel for Dia and not read the whole manual 
can start immediately.  Sometimes this isn't needed, like in games, but other times 
the program isn't as intuitive, as in Dia's case.
 
> (2) I know there have been discussions on here before about how self-contained
> each manual should be, but I wasn't sure what definite conclusions were arrived
> at. In this particular instance, I have in mind the printing section:
> 
> >
> > Printing
> >  +Page Setup
> >  +Selecting A Printer

There have been no definite conclusions yet, just a bunch of ideas.  I would like 
to see a generic printing help in the dialog.  So, when you press the help button 
on the print dialog a generic help pops up.  But there are instances when there 
are more options than what the standard gnome-print dialog contains.  In these 
instances I would like to see a printing section in the manual to explain the 
specific printing options to Dia.

I do not think that all of these generic help bits should be compiled into a new 
users guide, as you imply.  They will be very accessible via searching in Nautilus. 
So, if you want to learn about printing, you should be able to type printing and 
be able to find the generic printing dialog help quickly.

I do not have any ideas about implementing these generic help bits for the same 
dialogs in GNOME apps.

Eric Baudais