Do you have a URL for the Style Guide?

Changing Platform to all.  Don't want the Mac people to get anxious. ;-)

*** Issue 14444 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

Created attachment 6532 [details]
This is a template incorporating the styles from the U.S. docs style guide, #14444.

Created attachment 6912 [details]
Style guide version 0.2

Created attachment 6913 [details]
Style guide template version 0.2

Create a Style Guide for the OOo - Doc project.  This guide will provide a basis
for new contributors to follow a consitent style across the Doc site.

Created attachment 8937 [details]
Newly updated style guide with index

Created attachment 9060 [details]
Update template with formatted/generated index

I think the general style is good. 

Some questions: 
Why does the whole PDL license have to be included in every document?
 Is this really a legal requisite?  
Have we really reached the point where this is necessary? 

Seems to only clog up the internet; sort of like SoBig virus. 

Created attachment 9147 [details]
template with updated PDL format

Created attachment 9317 [details]
added 3 more important index entries

Created attachment 12174 [details]
latest version of template with footer style fix

Created attachment 13503 [details]
Found existing template difficult - is this ok?

I had difficulty with the existing template, I'm not sure whether I had the
latest version as it was sometime ago that I downloaded it.  I found reading the
style guide then trying to apply it to the template awkward and time consuming,
particularly the methods for creating bullet point lists and numbered steps.  I
have sent an attached version of what I would have found more helpful and
wondering whether it is ok? - If it isn't I guess a moderator can remove it.
I haven't found references for MLA bibliographic references so I have simply
used the defualt OOo format - does it conform?
Cheers, Ian Laurenson

Thanks for the feedback, Ian. I'll attempt to address your comments to your
satisfaction.

First, you are right that the bullets and numbering needs to be made more clear.
At the time, I wasn't even aware of the restart numbering button, which, in my
opinion, is poorly placed. I also like your examples of bullets and numbers.

We at first had numbered headings, but, after much discussion on the doc list,
they were rejected as not necessary and possibly too confusing.

Also, we did not include bibliographic styles/information because we did not
think they were necessary for the kind of documentation to be created from the
guide and template, namely end-user and possibly API docs. No real need for a
bibliography here.

The concept of the style guide is to encourage consistency in documentation
without putting off volunteers by being dogmatic. We did not want to include
much step-by-step instructions for this reason. Rather, we tried to keep it
minimal so as to allow individual interpretation in doc style while (hopefully)
maintaining a professional and reasonably consistent style.

The details in the style guide are for those who wish not to use the template,
or for those who want more detailed guidance on matters of general style. You
don't necessarily need to apply the style guide to the template.

However, I like the way you included examples of the various styles and I will
do the same in the next updated version. I'll also clarify the bullets and
numbers information.

Also, I found out through the users list about Tools>Outline Numbering, where I
can specify the paragraph style to be associated with each heading level. When I
created the template I didn't know about this and thought that only the default
heading styles could be used to generate headers and TOC entries. I will create
"OOoHeading," "OOobodytext," etc styles under the Custom category in the Stylist
so that all styles associated with the guide and template are in one category.
This change, along with the examples of each style and more clear bullet and
numbering information, should make the template easier and less confusing to use.

However, due to time constraints, it will probably be a few weeks....

Tim

Created attachment 13819 [details]
OOo U.S. doc template v0.4

Created attachment 13821 [details]
OOo U.S. doc template How To

Tim,
I have done a lot of work in/on OOo since my last posting - I have now written
about 100 pages on converting from M$ office to OOo.
See http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/hillview/OOo/.

I like what you have done - a few comments:
* Autocorrects are not stored with the template so the ooo autocorrect will not
happen for people without their setting it up.
* An alternative for numbering might be as follows
  *Have a style for the start of a numbered list:
      *Called OOoAboveNumberList (by why of example)
      *Keep with next paragraph property
      *Next style to be the OOoNumberList1
  *OOoNumberList1 style have the following properties:
      *Based on OOoNumberList
      *Have numbering style OOoNumber1 numbering style
         *OOoNumber1 numbering style has start at 1
      * Next style be OOoNumberList
   *OOoNumberList style
      *Next style be OOoNumberList
      *Numbering Style OOoNumber where
         *OOoNumber that doesn't restart the numbering

Thanks for the tip about Tools > Outline Numbering... > Paragraph styles

Cheers, Ian

Thanks for the feedback Ian! I just downloaded the template from here (instead
of using the one on my machine) and tried the "ooo" autocorrect feature and it
worked for me. Is it not working for you?

If I understand correctly, you are suggesting three different styles for
numbering to enable restarting of numbering. I think this might be too confusing
for many people. Three different styles for renumbering is too cumbersome,
especially when OOo has a renumbering feature. This feature could be a lot more
convenient, but it works well.

Of course, you are always free to customise the template for your own purposes :-)

Later,
Tim

Wanted to let everyone know that the Template and the Style Guide are both
available from the Documents and Files link on the Documentation project.  

Thanks to everyone for their hard work and comments.  Thanks, especially go to
Tim for bringing everything together.

Closing this issue.  Future updates can be added in a new Issue Tracker. Thanks
for the work.

The Issue you raised has been marked as 'Resolved' and not updated within the
last 1 year+. I am therefore setting this issue to 'Verified' as the first step
towards Closing it. If you feel this is incorrect, please re-open the issue and
add any comments.

Many thanks,
Andrew
 
Cleaning-up and Closing old Issues
~ The Grand Bug Squash, pre v3 ~
http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/announcementbeta.html

As per previous posting: Verified -> Closed.
A Closed Issue is a Happy Issue (TM).

Regards,
Andrew