User Manual vs. Help
by Roger Sharp
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
8 years, 3 months
translate
by Brynn
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wiki (which really is outdated and hasn't been active for a while) and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
8 years, 3 months
admin>pages on website
by Brynn
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
8 years, 3 months
more prominent link to the wiki?
by Brynn
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
8 years, 3 months
public to-do or volunteers needed section on website
by Brynn
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
8 years, 3 months
work to remove user info from wiki
by Brynn
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
8 years, 3 months
"default" download MSI?
by Brynn
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
8 years, 3 months
missing files?
by Brynn
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
8 years, 3 months
bug? website messaging
by Brynn
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
8 years, 3 months