User Documentation

[Matthew East]

On Thu, 2005-12-22 at 15:52 -0800, Corey Burger wrote:
> On 12/22/05, GrAnT GaLbRaiTh <manicka at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> >  I've been having a careful look at the UserDocumentation page. mdke has
> >  suggested in the past that I discuss any ideas for that page on this
> >  list, so here goes.
> >
> >  The page in itself seems to cluttered and is difficult to navigate. I
> >  believe this stems from all the links being set out under the main
> >  headings in one big long list.
> >
> >  I would suggest making a subpage for each of the main headings and
> >  moving the relevant links there. This would then unclutter the main page
> >  and make navigation easier.
> 
> Sounds good. There are already starts on pages like Installation, etc.
> What it should list is the most common item that people are looking
> for and then the rest can be placed on the subpage. Think how the Open
> with... in nautilus works.

Hmm I think this is something that we need to have a really solid think
about. We've been trying to figure out a nice structure for a docs index
for some time, and haven't quite hit it yet. I would tend to disagree
with the common items + subpages thing, for one reason only:

I agree that in principle it is the way forward.

BUT at the moment, searching *that page* (via a browser search) is a
good way to find documents. The inbuilt wiki search tool is completely
useless, not due to the search itself, but due to the presence of
non-documentation pages with confusing names. So, until the
BetterWikiDocs [1] spec is implemented, which will considerably improve
searchability, I think we should try and be inclusive. That doesn't mean
to say that the page can't be made more navigable: I think perhaps there
are ways we can improve the situation (each section having a link back
to the top of the page would be an obvious, if minor, one)

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BetterWikiDocs

My 2 cents on that.

Matt
-- 
mdke at ubuntu.com
gnupg pub 1024D/0E6B06FF
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