Basically, this Help is not a HOW-TO. It is a reference where users can find explanations about all command and options. It is related to the F1 context help. Some how-to have been added, but you can find much better on the Web. You can find some good books also, and you will see that none describes all commands. Another advantage of our help is that we can have many colored images. About terminology : GIMP uses a specific vocabulary like other graphic programs. An adaptation period is necessary as for any technique.The Glossary can help you. We are desperately looking for new doc writers... Writing an example for every command is a project. Tamie Burch wrote: > I am a very new GIMP user. I am also not a very knowledgeable graphics person. > So I located your User Manual in hopes that it might help me learn more about > your product for my personal web designing needs. I sponsor a couple of very > simple web sites for the theatre and general aviation groups I am a part of. > > Since I am not a program developer, or a graphics artist, I am finding it very > difficult to follow your documentation and to understand it's content. > > I am, however, a documentation specialist and have been for many years. I have > written many different types of user documentation, training materials and > administrative tools for government software applications. I hope this > feedback from a fellow tech writer might come in handy, and to help upgrade > your hard work on your materials and to better support your very powerful > product. > > As a simple user, I am finding the writing in the documentation > very high > level. Since I am not that technical, like a developer would be, the writing > level could come down "quite a bit" for those of us who really only want to > know how to use the products abilities, much like a "How-To" guide. > > As a fellow writer I know how much work would be involved in re-writing such a > large document. But maybe these few suggestions for modifying/adding to it > might help users who need something written at a little lower level. > > 1) In every subsection (i..e., 5.1 Path Creating, 5.3 Transforming Paths, etc.), > add an actual step-by-step exercise that can be followed to actually create > what you are describing. > 2) In the paragraph descriptions, try not to use high level buzz words, such as > in section 6. Brushes "pixmap". There is no real definition of it, or anything > that can find or understand. > 3) Stay consistent throughout the document. As suggested in item #1, putting > step-by-steps would be helpful. > You have some like in section 9 for creating a > brush. But other sections that could use these don't have any. > 4) Be consistent with terminology. Such as using the word "options" and > "dialogs" for the pop-up windows used for all the tools. It becomes confusing. > > Of course I have not yet read through the entire document, so some of these > ideas/suggestions might have been followed further into the manual. If not, I > hope they are helpful making a good product much better and more useful to a > wider audience. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Shape Yahoo! in your own image. Join our Network Research Panel today! > <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=48517/*http://surveylink.yahoo.com/gmrs/yahoo_panel_invite.asp?a=7> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Gimp-docs mailing list > Gimp-docs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-docs > _______________________________________________ Gimp-docs mailing list Gimp-docs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-docs
