Re: GCI: Character Map Mallard Progress

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Wed, 2010-12-08 at 17:03 -0800, Jason Lo wrote:
> Sorry, I realized that I had forgotten to attach the file. And if that
> doesn't work for any reason, here's a link to the archive:
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4014646/charMap.zip
> 
> On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 5:00 PM, Jason Lo <yet2bedefined gmail com>
> wrote:
> > Attached to this is a zip file containing my current progress in
> > writing the Mallard manual for Character Map. I have written so far
> a
> > paraphrased introduction, and a basic entry on how to get characters
> > out of the application. I just wanted to know whether the tone I've
> > been writing in matches what you guys are going for, and whether my
> > basic entry meets the requirements of the task (I'm currently
> working
> > on one or two more conceptual entries for more specific tasks).
> >
> 
Hi Jason,

I really like the way you structured "How to get a string out
of Character Map". You've given instructions on how to actually
*find* the right character, which is what people really want to
know. Nitpicks:

* Drop the "How to" from the title. That was actually the first
titling scheme we tried when we first started doing Mallard, and
we found we got tediously repetitive guide pages. "How to X",
"How to Y", "How to Z your W", etc.

* I fear the word "string" might be geeky. "text" is a good word.
In fact, "Find and copy text" is short and descriptive title for
this page.

* Drop the "Opening Character Map" section. By the time a user
has gotten to this page, you can assume he's figured out how to
open the program. (In the rare case where we really do need to
tell people how to open something, let's put that on its own
page and link to it, rather than duplicate it.)

Thanks,
Shaun