June 2015 - Inkscape Docs - Inkscape Mailman

User Manual vs. Help
by Roger Sharp 30 Jun '15

30 Jun '15

I think a regular Web Help file that is searchable and has an Index and TOC (via a Help Authoring Tool, aka, HAT) would be more useful than the book-like Help available now. I don’t have a HAT available but I bet the web pages that make up the Inkscape Manual could be easily imported (if they are available legally). Tutorials would be great but short of that a searchable Help file would be great. sharpart

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translate
by Brynn 29 Jun '15

29 Jun '15

Hi Maren, Just to let you know I made that change in the FAQ re the Roadmap. I also made a couple of edits to #A.10. (animation). (Corrected some not quite correct info, removed the reference to the animation extension in the wiki (which really is outdated and hasn't been active for a while) and replaced with link to Snap.svg.) All best, brynn

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admin>pages on website
by Brynn 26 Jun '15

26 Jun '15

Hi Maren and/or Martin, I'm copying this to the list, since I've seen this happen for a long time, but it's always correctable. But tonight it's not always correctable, and starting to annoy me. When I go to admin > pages (not the shortcut from the django bar, but to Administration from the dropdown when I mouse over my username on the website, and then choosing Pages), when I first browse to the Pages page, I start to see the page as expected, with about half the Language columns and green dots, but before the page finishes loading, the page flashes once, they all disappear, and all I see is the...I think it's called "tree" on the left side of the page (where you can click a plus or minus sign to open or close a category or main menu item). Usually when that happens, I can just refresh the page, and all the languages and green dots show up. But tonight, I've had to refresh 5 or 6 times. Each time, as the page starts to load, I can see about half the columns, those on the right half of the page, then it goes away, and comes back blank - well only with the tree on the left. After the 6th refresh, it loaded all the columns. After a lot of testing, it sometimes takes 3 or 4 refreshes, and sometimes 5 or 6. Could this somehow be related to my service, on my end? I have not seen any issues like this on any other website. Or maybe Fastly? Or somehow, Django? Until now, as long as I could refresh once and fix, I'm ok. But more than 1 refresh to see the page seems....well, not right. I think, whatever this is, could be related to the problem I had with the green/red icons, earlier this afternoon. Once I refreshed the page, and it came back blank, then refreshed again, when the columns came back, that's when the icon stayed red. Maybe it's not always loading completely? Anyway, all I can do is report. I really have no clue what could be happening. thanks, brynn

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more prominent link to the wiki?
by Brynn 22 Jun '15

22 Jun '15

Hi Friends, This might be just me, but I find myself needing to browse from the website to the wiki fairly often. Of course I have a Favorite/Bookmark for it. But I wonder if a link to the wiki should be easier to find on the website? Usually I open the Learn page, and use the link near the bottom of the page. Anyway, just a thought I wanted to share. And I wonder what others might think about it. Maybe that Learn page link is enough? All best, brynn

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public to-do or volunteers needed section on website
by Brynn 22 Jun '15

22 Jun '15

Hi Friends, This may be something for LP, but I thought I would post here first, just to be sure. Someone mentioned recently putting up a page on the website (maybe Maren), listing all the work we need (or hope) to be done, not just on the website but for the project as a whole, and asking for volunteers. Kind of "help needed" board, or "volunteers wanted" or "jobs postings".... I suppose it would be a page under Contribute. It would list the jobs or tasks available, and also indicate the skills or experience that would be needed for it. Also who to contact, how to contact, etc. I suspect we have people in the community who might like to help, but who don't realize what is needed. Some examples: -- a webmaster or someone who knows about content management (or there might be a better way to say that, but just for example) -- other needs for website (Maren and Martin know more) -- a tutorial or guide to writing extensions -- a tutorial or guide to compiling on our 3 supported systems -- I'm sure some of you have other ideas, as well? -- maybe can't hurt to mention the need for translators here too (in addition to the other page) -- work needed related to https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape-web/+bug/1428463 -- etc. Should I make a feature request? Or just make page? All best, brynn

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Website editing / translation / development guide updated
by Maren Hachmann 22 Jun '15

22 Jun '15

Hi everyone, this is just to let you know that guide for editing the website has been updated and rearranged, to include some more info that I hope will be helpful for editors, translators and prospective devs/designers. (one rarely realizes what is missing when one already knows how it works... ;)) Find it here: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/WebSite Kind regards, Maren

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work to remove user info from wiki
by Brynn 22 Jun '15

22 Jun '15

Hi Maren, Thought I should start a new thread for this. As it turns out, all I had done was make a list of the links in the User Documentation section on the Main Page (and what I thought should happen to them). After that, I was going to start working through the User Documentation category. Before we launch into deciding what to do with each page, I wanted to be clear about a couple of things. When you cautioned against deleting pages, even when we know they are no longer needed, why is that? And 2nd - I noticed on some of these pages there is a note in a red box at the top of some of the pages (saying the info is outdated), that wasn't there when I first started. I guess that was you? So if you've already done a lot of this work, then we won't need to do a whole lot of discussion. Just make the list of things that need to be done. Right? All best, brynn

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"default" download MSI?
by Brynn 11 Jun '15

11 Jun '15

Hi Friends, I'm trying to help someone who is having trouble installing Inkscape. I still don't know exactly what they downloaded. But I notice that the big Inkscape Download icon on this page https://inkscape.org/en/download/windows/, actually downloads the MSI version or installer (I'm not sure what the right word is). I both avoid using the MSI file myself, and suggest others not to use it as well, simply because I don't know what it is or does, or how to use it. I would suggest it might be better to have the EXE attached to that icon, as the "default" download (because even brand new Windows users know how to use it). Or otherwise, give some kind of explanation for us "non-techy" types, how to use the MSI download. Maybe it was chosen because the 64-bit version doesn't have an EXE installer? And then they could both be the same? -- I'm not sure the rationalization. But I would also like to suggest that the 64-bit download attached to that big (gorgeous) icon should be the 7z version. (Or otherwise, tell us how to use the MSI.) I'm not sure if this is the intent, but by having the MSI attached to the big icons, *sort of* implies that is preferred by developers. If it is preferred for some reason, I would be curious why. Thanks for listening :-) brynn

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missing files?
by Brynn 06 Jun '15

06 Jun '15

Hi Friends, Someone on InkscapeForum mentioned there is no (compiled) dev version for Windows on https://inkscape.org/en/download/. Is there just no compiled version available? .....or maybe there never is? Or is it missing? Just need to know what to tell them, since I'm not very familiar with using dev versions. Thanks, brynn

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bug? website messaging
by Brynn 05 Jun '15

05 Jun '15

Hi Friends, Just posting here, since I'm not sure if this should go in a bug report or not. If so, lmk and I'll make report. Actually, it might be 2 issues. I've had a browser tab open to the website for most of today, and I'm logged in. 1 -- Even though there was a new message in my....do we call it exactly an inbox? Anyway, there was a fresh message there, for over 6 hours, and I never saw the icon flashing. And I looked at...at least a couple of pages in that time.....maybe 3 or 4. However, I'm not certain enough to call it broken, without some specific testing (with some new messages). 2 -- I am more certain about this one. I opened Maren's new About Screen Contest draft page, just a few minutes ago, and the message icon was not flashing. After reading the email from the mailing list, (about the About Screen Contest page) I wanted to make a reply about using the messaging system for voting, but I wanted to check and make sure about the names of the message sender being shown, before I sent the reply. So I moused over my message icon and it showed All Messages (4), and Also it showed 1 New Message. At the instant I clicked on 1 New Message, the icon started flashing. I'm not sure about the status of my Firefox plugin that blocks the referrer header. Since I use the Inkscape website so often, I'm literally clicking that thing off and on 10 or 12 times a day now. So whether it was on or off and when I can't say. But we can do some testing if necessary. :-) All best, brynn

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