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#1 2006-10-02 16:45:31

Walker
Plugin Author
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 592
Website

[contrib] TXPManual

I launched a new site last night. I’m still in the process of filling it with content. This process will be ongoing as I have provided a mechanism for users to ask questions that will then be written into new tutorials.

I’m waiting to add in search until the site has more content that could even be searched. This project’s goal is to be an interactive task-based user manual for Textpattern. If anyone would be interested in helping to write tutorials or in allowing me to port their task-based how-tos from this forum over to the Manual, get in touch.

The Textpattern Manual

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#2 2006-10-02 17:02:15

hcgtv
Plugin Author
From: Key Largo, Florida
Registered: 2005-11-29
Posts: 2,722
Website

Re: [contrib] TXPManual

Nice one, I’ll keep an eye on it and see how it progresses.

A couple of observations:
  • There’s no way to get back to the front page.
  • “txp manual makes figuring out how to do what you need to do possible without wading through what you don’t need to do.” sounds a bit confusing.

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#3 2006-10-02 17:19:55

Walker
Plugin Author
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 592
Website

Re: [contrib] TXPManual

  • I don’t really think there’s a reason to get back to the front page. It provides no information that is necessary to the person who is using the manual to complete a task. It also provides no navigational use that cannot be found on any other page.
  • Agreed. I revised that one.

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#4 2006-10-02 19:16:00

wet
Developer Emeritus
From: Schoerfling, Austria
Registered: 2005-06-06
Posts: 3,328
Website Mastodon

Re: [contrib] TXPManual

I’ve noticed a little image-/text disparity:

my-new-page in your browser.

vs.

Last edited by wet (2006-10-02 19:16:51)

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#5 2006-10-03 01:48:19

Walker
Plugin Author
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 592
Website

Re: [contrib] TXPManual

Howdy wet,

Thanks for pointing that out. I noticed it after I’d created that tutorial and wondered if it would be noticed or matter. Clearly it does. I will revise the images associated with that tutorial and look to keep the wording in line with the images while going forward.

Thanks for the input, guys!

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#6 2006-10-03 02:14:37

jm
Plugin Author
From: Missoula, MT
Registered: 2005-11-27
Posts: 1,746
Website

Re: [contrib] TXPManual

Great idea. So this will, in a way, synthesize TXBook content, like putting all the tags into context for example?

I might have some flash videos/screencasts I can send your way to add as a text supplement too. I made ~8 Captivate videos for a client’s user guide, so I just need to strip out the plugin-specific frames.

Last edited by jm (2006-10-03 02:17:00)

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#7 2006-10-03 03:34:14

Walker
Plugin Author
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 592
Website

Re: [contrib] TXPManual

Yes, exactly. I intend to add two large features in at a later date (as soon as I have more data to play with).

  1. Search
  2. Relativisitic tagging.

These two features are currently secondary, though. I am looking to just work on writing concise coherent task-based tutorials right now. This project was conceived as a project around which to base some papers and work for my Master’s Degree, which I’m working on right now. (I’m studying Information Architecture and Technical Communication.)

The tagging will, eventually, allow tutorials to say “you’ve learned this, now you might be interested in learning this or this”.

If you pass your movies over to me, I’ll figure out some way to include them (I had kind of written off video before this point.) If you want, email me via the textpattern forum form with your real email and I can set you up with an FTP account on one of my servers so you can send them over.

Thanks for the great feedback. Keep it coming!

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#8 2006-10-03 05:08:29

Walker
Plugin Author
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 592
Website

Re: [contrib] TXPManual

Wet,

Made that change. Thanks again. I think it was a straight-on observation. I’m glad someone called me out on a laziness issue that was so easy to deal with.

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#9 2006-10-03 08:29:23

wet
Developer Emeritus
From: Schoerfling, Austria
Registered: 2005-06-06
Posts: 3,328
Website Mastodon

Re: [contrib] TXPManual

…which make my above post look quite nonsensical ;-)

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#10 2007-03-08 13:39:02

resplence
Member
Registered: 2006-03-07
Posts: 37

Re: [contrib] TXPManual

I don’t really think there’s a reason to get back to the front page. It provides no information that is necessary to the person who is using the manual to complete a task. It also provides no navigational use that cannot be found on any other page.

The only “contact” link is on the front page. Unless you hover it there’s no way of knowing if it’s a contact section or just a mailto:, so people might feel the need to go back to the front page to find out. Either way, having to type it out on the address bar when one click would suffice is a bit too much. It could go on a simple footer, if you don’t want to mess with the navigation.

Also, the contact form displays an error: (HtmlHelper::formTag) Deprecated: Use FormHelper::create instead

Nice initiative by the way.

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#11 2007-03-08 14:23:35

FireFusion
Member
Registered: 2005-05-10
Posts: 698

Re: [contrib] TXPManual

Looks excellent. Thanks for doing this.

I may contribute in the future.

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#12 2007-03-09 16:05:13

Walker
Plugin Author
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2004-02-24
Posts: 592
Website

Re: [contrib] TXPManual

Thanks for letting me know about that error.

I recently switched all my domains to a single server and updated all of my applications to a new codebase, so some of the apps needed a little TLC to get back up to speed.

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