Restyled GnuCash website is online

David T. sunfish62 at yahoo.com
Sun Sep 25 21:11:41 EDT 2011


Don--

Your points are well taken, and your wording is an improvement (IMHO).

If the Doc Project info is moved, then the first (run-on) sentence really should be put on that new page (see my suggestion below).

This page should then be titled "Gnucash Documentation"

I think a better opening would be something like:

"There are two major Gnucash documentation packages: the Help Manual and the Concepts guide."


This opening should replace the first two paragraphs entirely.

While we're at it, the sentence explaining what a wiki is should be removed as well.

I also think the sequence of the following sections should be changed so that the first section is the stable documentation set. Although I understand the desire to have the most recent information available, I think many new users will react negatively to the term "unstable."

The new page should be titled "Gnucash Documentation Project", and it should begin as follows:

"The goal of the GnuCash Documentation Project is to maintain a community of people 
working towards creation of high quality documentation for GnuCash. Volunteers have contributed their time and expertise to create these documents."

Cheers,
David


----- Original Message -----
From: Donald Allen <donaldcallen at gmail.com>
To: David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>
Cc: Cristian Marchi <cri79 at libero.it>; Wm Tarr <wm.tarr at gmail.com>; "gnucash-devel at gnucash.org" <gnucash-devel at gnucash.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2011 4:05 PM
Subject: Re: Restyled GnuCash website is online

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 6:36 PM, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> On a second note, on http://www.gnucash.org/docs.phtml, I would suggest moving the entire section on the Documentation Project to another page. I don't think that most people initially looking for Documentation are that interested in this aspect of things. Moving this to another page and putting a link  as the last sentence of the first main section would be more appropriate, I think.
>
> Something like:
>
> Gnucash's documentation has been created by its community. Look at [link]Documentation Development[/link] if you want to help with this!

Or

"Gnucash's documentation has been created by its community. See
[link]Documentation Development[/link] if you are interested in
contributing to this effort."

I agree with you that the current intermixing of "here's the
documentation" with "here's how you can help write more" is a bit
confusing. The first sentence is more about the latter than the
former, but then immediately thereafter, the focus is on the former.
The latter returns again at the bottom of the page. Separating these
topics into separate, linked pages makes sense to me.

On a related but different topic, the sentence at the top of the page
is not correctly constructed. It currently says:

"This page is the home of the GnuCash Documentation Project, our goal
is to maintain a community of people working towards creation of high
quality documentation for GnuCash."

I would suggest:

"This page is the home of the GnuCash Documentation Project. Our goal
is to maintain a community of people working towards creation of
high-quality documentation for GnuCash."

One could go further with improving this (e.g., the first sentence of
my edited version is redundant as the current page stands, since the
title just above it is "GnuCash Documentation Project"), but how you
do it relates to how the material is organized and since we're
discussing reorganizing it, I won't bother with further edits until
that issue is settled.

/Don

>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Donald Allen <donaldcallen at gmail.com>
> To: David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>
> Cc: Cristian Marchi <cri79 at libero.it>; Wm Tarr <wm.tarr at gmail.com>; "gnucash-devel at gnucash.org" <gnucash-devel at gnucash.org>
> Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2011 1:58 PM
> Subject: Re: Restyled GnuCash website is online
>
> On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 4:49 PM, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> That's an improvement, for sure, although I might quibble with the locution "This page will try to..." since the page can't technically "do" anything.
>>
>>
>> I'd go for:
>>
>> Below are details of some of the numerous features that GnuCash has to offer to
>> its users.
>
> I agree -- that's better.
>
> /Don
>
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Donald Allen <donaldcallen at gmail.com>
>> To: David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>
>> Cc: Cristian Marchi <cri79 at libero.it>; Wm Tarr <wm.tarr at gmail.com>; "gnucash-devel at gnucash.org" <gnucash-devel at gnucash.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2011 9:17 AM
>> Subject: Re: Restyled GnuCash website is online
>>
>> On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 11:30 AM, David T. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> I see some stuff on http://www.gnucash.org/features.phtml that could use an editorial eye. I'd take advice on how to proceed. You could do that off list if need be.
>>
>> Yes.
>>
>> For example,
>>
>> "GnuCash is a powerful accounting software. This page will try to
>> explain in detail which are the numerous features that GnuCash has to
>> offer to it's users."
>>
>> could be improved by
>>
>> "GnuCash is powerful accounting software. This page will try to
>> explain in detail the numerous features that GnuCash has to offer to
>> its users."
>>
>> /Don
>>
>>>
>>> David
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: Cristian Marchi <cri79 at libero.it>
>>> To: Wm Tarr <wm.tarr at gmail.com>
>>> Cc: gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
>>> Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2011 2:38 AM
>>> Subject: Re: Restyled GnuCash website is online
>>>
>>> I'm with you. First impression is crucial. As I'm not a native or an expert in english (or american), your offer is really appreciated. Are you able to provide a patch or do you need some advice on how to proceed?
>>>
>>> Thanks for the offer
>>> Cristian
>>>
>>> Il 25/09/2011 11:20, Wm Tarr ha scritto:
>>>> I wouldn't say it is a problem as such but some of the english isn't how an english speaking person would say something.  I understand perfectly what is meant, but some other people may not and they may gain a bad opinion of GnuCash as a result (yes, I know those people are silly, it is about presentation).  My offer is to normalize (american z rather than english s) what you have offered.  Maybe other people don't think it is necessary.  I am not imposing so much as suggesting.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> gnucash-devel mailing list
>>> gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> gnucash-devel mailing list
>>> gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
>>>
>>
>>
>
>




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