Google Season of Docs 2020
TDF LibreOffice Document Liberation Project Community Blogs Weblate Nextcloud Redmine Ask LibreOffice Donate
What is the Google Season of Docs?
From the introductory page of the project:
The goals of Season of Docs are to give technical writers an opportunity to gain experience in contributing to open source projects, and to give open source projects an opportunity to engage the technical writing community.
During the program, technical writers spend a few months working closely with an open source community. They bring their technical writing expertise to the project's documentation, and at the same time learn about open source and new technologies.
The open source projects work with the technical writers to improve the project's documentation and processes. Together they may choose to build a new documentation set, or redesign the existing docs, or improve and document the open source community's contribution procedures and onboarding experience.
Together, we raise public awareness of open source docs, of technical writing, and of how we can work together to the benefit of the global open source community.
About applying to the Program
Applicants Technical Writers are invited to read carefully the program Technical Writer Guide pages before, and evaluate if they qualify for the program.
 |
Note:
|
You MUST download and install LibreOffice software in your computer. Download it from LibreOffice Download Page.
You MUST get familiar with LibreOffice software. There is no point on writing about LibreOffice and ignore the software.
English is the language for communication and technical contents delivered in this program. Proficiency in English is required. All deliverables must be proofread.
You will write a work proposal in a LibreOffice document containing
- A 5 lines résumé, mentioning your work experience, technical writing experience applied to the ideas you chose. Links to Linked In and to your writings will be considered.
- The idea you chose for technical writing.
- MANDATORY: State how many hours per week you will dedicate to the Program.
- A plan for developing the work that includes dates, deliverables, tests.
For example
| Week | Activity | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Design draft of chapter/part 1 | Send draft to mentor |
| Week 2-4 | prepare graphics, sketches of part 1 | Test, get mentor approval |
| Week 5-6 | Write and assemble part 1 contents | send to mentor |
| (...) | (...) | (...) |
Send the work plan in a LibreOffice Writer file (*.odt) to documentation at libreoffice dot org for evaluation.
You can use this example File:GSOD2020 project proposal.odt
Ideas for Documentation technical writing
LibreOffice E-Learning Writer
Provide a set of lessons, compatible with Moodle https://moodle.org/ on LibreOffice Writer
Source of information
- Writer Guide 6.x or 7.x
- LibreOffice Help
- others
Suggested Topics
- Introduction to Writer: description, purpose, type of documents handled by Writer, quick comparison with other suites
- Writer user interface (menus, toolbars, sidebar, notebook bar, display modes)
- Output: print, PDF, e-Pub, File formats - ODF, issues in interoperability.
- Styles and direct formatting
- Page styles
- Tables
- Chapter numbering and TOC
Some insights
- The classes must be run without tutoring. No chat for questions
- Should be an intelligent mix of multimedia (GIF animations, videos) and reading.
- Quiz at end of the lesson, possibly with a random set of questions.
- Source text should be translatable, videos with captions.
Mentors
- Olivier Hallot
LibreOffice E-Learning Calc
Provide a set of lessons, compatible with Moodle https://moodle.org/ on LibreOffice Calc
Source of information
- Calc Guide 6.x or 7.x
- LibreOffice Help
- others
Suggested Topics
- Introduction to Calc: description, purpose, type of documents handled by Calc, quick comparison with other suites
- Calc user interface (menus, toolbars, sidebar, notebook bar, display modes)
- Data types and input
- Referencing cells and ranges
- Introduction to formulas
- Introduction to functions
- Output: print, PDF, e-Pub, File formats - ODF, issues in interoperability.
- Styles and direct formatting
- Displaying data in charts
Some insights
- The classes must be run without tutoring. No chat for questions
- Should be an intelligent mix of multimedia (GIF animations, videos) and reading.
- Quiz at end of the lesson, possibly with a random set of questions.
- Source text should be translatable, videos with captions.
Mentors
- Olivier Hallot
Calc Functions Reference and User Guide
Introduction
LibreOffice Calc has an extensive (+ 500) list of functions in many categories for which the documentation is quite shallow (but nevertheless accurate) in the Help. Calc's built-in Function Wizard also provides the user with summary information about each function's purpose and parameters. A structure has been created on The Document Foundation's wiki to capture more detailed reference information about Calc's functions.
Objective
To populate the wiki structure by writing more detailed contents for each of Calc's functions, flagging adherence to the ODFF standard, including illustrations and diagrams where helpful, giving one or two examples to indicate corner cases and exceptions, and providing sample/example files.
Skills
- Technical writing
- Mathematics or engineering, science professions.
Reference
Wiki pages: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Calc_Functions
ODFF standard: http://docs.oasis-open.org/office/v1.2/os/OpenDocument-v1.2-os-part2.html
Mentors
- Olivier Hallot
- Steve Fanning
LibreOffice API documentation
Introduction
Writing BASIC or Python macros in LibreOffice requires the usage of the LibreOffice Application Programming Interface (API). The documentation of this API is offered in [1] with the doxygen tool at build time. Simple visit to [1] shows web pages with little usage for the average macro programmer, especially when the macro programmer is familiar with VBA used in other office suites. As explained in the Engineering Steering Committee (ESC) the doxygen pages are for interfaces and not for objects.
Objective
To create the full automated set of web pages that can assist the occasional macro programmer with quick and easy access to objects description of the API.
Conditions
The resulting set of web pages must be synchronized with the development of the software, each change or addition to the API must be reflected in the documentation.
Sources
[1] API website: https://api.libreoffice.org/docs/idl/ref/index.html
[2] ESC minutes https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice/2020-April/085010.html
[3] Xray tool: https://berma.pagesperso-orange.fr/index2.html
The Video Presentation of LibreOffice Modules
LibreOffice online Help system can display video hosted in video server such as You Tube or similar. The objective of the project is to create 3 to 5 minutes presentation (teasing) video of each module, showing the main features for the module. An example of the video quality is shown below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HUnR5IoAQk
Each video will be inserted in our online Help page replacing the generic "new features" video in each module of the online Help, for example
https://help.libreoffice.org/6.3/en-US/text/swriter/main0000.html?DbPAR=WRITER
The videos can also be reused in the "feature pages" of the main website: https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/writer/
Rules for the Videos
- Subject: An introductory presentation of the module (Writer, Calc, Draw, Impress, Base, Math, and Basic/Python)
- Create the storyboard of each video, review with mentor.
- contents in English and text with have caption for other languages
- 3 to 5 minutes video
- HD and readable screenshots,
- Upload to video service in TDF channel
- use best practices for online videos
Mentor:
Co-mentor: