Documentation
Contributors’ Guide

Chapter 3
Using the ODFAuthors
WebsiteCopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2016 by the LibreOffice Documentation Team. Contributors are listed
below. You may distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General Public
License (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative Commons
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), version 4.0 or later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors
Jean Hollis WeberDan Lewis

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to the Documentation Team’s
mailing list: documentation@global.libreoffice.org
Note: Everything you send to a mailing list, including your email address and any other personal
information that is written in the message, is publicly archived and cannot be deleted.

Publication datePublished 8 October 2016.

Documentation for LibreOffice is available at http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/documentation

Contents
Copyright.............................................................................................................................. 2
Contributors................................................................................................................................. 2
Feedback..................................................................................................................................... 2
Publication date........................................................................................................................... 2

Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 4
Workflow for producing user guide chapters................................................................... 4Workflow description.................................................................................................................... 5Organizing workflow through folders............................................................................................ 5

Creating a new user guide chapter.................................................................................... 5
Creating a completely new chapter.............................................................................................. 6
Creating a new chapter based on an existing chapter................................................................. 6

Revising an existing user guide chapter...........................................................................7
Submitting a chapter for review......................................................................................... 7Reviewing a chapter............................................................................................................ 7Downloading a chapter for review................................................................................................ 7Uploading a chapter after review................................................................................................. 8Publishing a chapter............................................................................................................8Tracking progress using the wiki....................................................................................... 9For more information...........................................................................................................9Using the ODFAuthors Website | 3

Introduction
The LibreOffice Documentation team uses the ODFAuthors website (http://odfauthors.org/) forstoring, organizing, and tracking working copies of user guide files. The website uses a content
management system called Plone. It is quite easy to use once you become familiar with it.
Final published versions of the files are stored on the ODFAuthors website in addition to theDocument Foundation’s wiki (http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications). The
Documentation page of the LibreOffice website (http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/documentation/)
links to the documents stored on the wiki.

Workflow for producing user guide chapters

4 | Workflow for producing user guide chapters

Workflow description
Refer to the diagram on the previous page and the one in “Organizing workflow through folders”
below. See also “Tracking progress using the wiki” on page 9 for file naming covention used for
tracking the progress of a file.
1)

Author creates a new document, uploads it into the Drafts folder under the relevant book,and submits it for review (see “Creating a new user guide chapter” below and “Submitting achapter for review” on page 7).

2)

Reviewer downloads draft document, makes changes with change tracking on, changes
the file name, and uploads the result into the Feedback folder under the relevant book (see“Reviewing a chapter” on page 7).

3)

Author (or someone else, depending on book and circumstances) revises draft, removes
change tracking up to that point, uploads file to Drafts folder—OR skip to Step 5.

4)

Repeat steps 2 and 3 as needed.

5)

Author (or other) makes final changes, removes all change tracking, uploads file to Drafts
folder, submits it for review, and pings the copyeditor on the Documentation list.

6)

Copyeditor does job with change tracking on, puts result into Feedback.

7)

Author (or other) accepts/rejects edits, makes any other changes needed, optionallysubmits for another review or edit, or uploads revised file to Feedback and pings bookcoordinator.

8)

Book coordinator final checks file and uploads it into Published folder (or returns it toFeedback for further work), publishes it (see “Publishing a chapter” on page 8).

9)Book coordinator/Publisher exports file to PDF and makes both ODT and PDF files
available to the public, with a copy of the ODT in the working folder for next revision. (SeeChapter 2, Producing LibreOffice User Guides for more about the publishing process.)

Organizing workflow through folders
The English section of ODFAuthors has this hierarchy:
English[book name]
DraftsFeedback
Published
Old files [those we do not want to delete yet]
ImagesResources for Contributors

Creating a new user guide chapter
New chapters may be created in two circumstances. The details of how to create a new chapter
vary between them and will be discussed separately.
•Completely new chapter•

New chapter based on existing chapter (for example, when updating information for a newbook about a new version of LibreOffice)Creating a new user guide chapter | 5

Creating a completely new chapter
1) Create draft document according to these documents, which you can get fromhttp://www.odfauthors.org/libreoffice/english/resources-for-contributers/.

2)–

The latest chapter template (currently LO 5.0 Chapter Template.ott).

–

Chapter 2, Producing LibreOffice User Guides, which includes instructions for installing
the template and creating a new document from it.

–

Chapter 4, Style Guide (writing style, word usage, and other instructions).

–Chapter 5, Using the Chapter Template, which includes instructions on the use of thepage, paragraph, character, and other styles included in the template.

Upload draft to the appropriate draft folder:a) Sign into the ODFAuthors web site.
b) Go to LibreOffice > English > [appropriate folder for your document] > Drafts.
c) On the menu bar above the list of files, click Add new and then click File from its menu.

d) On the Add File page (not shown), type the title and (optionally) a description .
e) Click the Browse button to open a standard file browser window. Find and select thefile on your computer, then click Open.
f)

Back on the Add File page, click Save to upload the file to ODFAuthors.

3)

Submit the document for review; see page 7.

4)Report what you have done, and the location of the file, to the documentation team’s
mailing list (documentation@global.libreoffice.org).

Creating a new chapter based on an existing chapter
Use this procedure when updating a chapter for a new book about a new version of LibreOffice.
1)

Get a copy of the published chapter for the previous version of LibreOffice.

2)

Rename the copy according to our file naming convention (see Chapter 2, Producing
LibreOffice User Guides).

3)

Revise the chapter as needed, with change tracking on (see Chapter 2).

4)

Upload the result to the Drafts folder for the new book.

5)

Report what you have done to the documentation team’s mailing list.

6 | Creating a new chapter based on an existing chapter

Revising an existing user guide chapter
If corrections are required to a previously-published chapter, use this procedure.
1)

Get a copy of the published chapter. DO NOT change the status of the published chapter.

2)

Rename the copy according to our file naming convention (see Chapter 2, Producing
LibreOffice User Guides).

3)

Revise the chapter as needed, with change tracking on (see Chapter 2).

4)

Upload the result to the Feedback folder for the existing book.

5)

Submit the document for review (see “Submitting a chapter for review” below).

6)

Report what you have done to the documentation team’s mailing list(documentation@global.libreoffice.org).

Submitting a chapter for review
After you have uploaded a chapter that is ready for review, change the status of the document.
1)

Be sure you are signed into ODFAuthors.

2)

Go to the page for the chapter file.

3)

On the menu bar above the file name, click State: Internal draft and select Submit for
publication. (It changes to State: Pending review.)

4)

Report what you have done, and the location of the file, to the documentation team’s
mailing list (documentation@global.libreoffice.org).

Reviewing a chapter
Refer to Chapter 2, Producing LibreOffice User Guides, for information on what to look for whenreviewing a chapter. This section decribes how to use the ODFAuthors website when downloadinga chapter for review and uploading a chapter after review.

Downloading a chapter for review
1)

Be sure you are signed into ODFAuthors.

2)

Go to the required folder: LibreOffice > English > [book title] > Drafts.

3)

Select the file you want to download. You will be taken to the file’s page.

4)

Click on the file’s name to download it.

5)

Change the file’s status: click State: Pending review and select Retract. (It changes toState: Internal draft.)

Reviewing a chapter | 7

Uploading a chapter after review
1)

Be sure you are signed into ODFAuthors.

2)

Go to the required folder: LibreOffice > English > [book title] > Feedback.

3)

On the menu bar above the list of files, click Add new and then click File from its menu.

4)

On the Add File page, type the title and (optionally) a description of the document.

5)

Click the Browse button to open a standard file browser window. Find and select the file on
your computer, then click Open.

6)

Back on the Add File page, click Save to upload the file to ODFAuthors.

7)

Set the file’s status to Pending review (see “Submitting a chapter for review” on page 7.

8)Report what you have done, and the location of the file, to the documentation team’s
mailing list (documentation@global.libreoffice.org).

Publishing a chapter
1)

Be sure you are signed into ODFAuthors.

2)

Go to the required folder: LibreOffice > English > [book title] > Published.

3)

On the menu bar above the list of files, click Add new and then click File from its menu.

4)

On the Add File page, type the title and (optionally) a description of the document.

5)

Click the Browse button to open a standard file browser window. Find and select the file on
your computer, then click Open.

6)

Back on the Add File page, click Save to upload the file to ODFAuthors.

7)

Change the file’s status: click State: Pending review and select Publish externally. (Itchanges to State: externally visible.)

8)

Report what you have done, and the location of the file, to the documentation team’s
mailing list (documentation@global.libreoffice.org).

8 | Publishing a chapterNoteIn addition, add the chapter ODT and PDF to the wiki by editing the Publications page andthen uploading the files. https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications

Tracking progress using the wiki
When you are working on a chapter, please place your initials and the date in the Checkout columnof the appropriate table on the Documentation Development wiki page,
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Development/UserGuideTasks
When you return the file to ODFAuthors, please remove your initials and date from the Checkoutcolumn and add your initials and the date to the appropriate column (reviewed, edited).

For more information
If you have any questions, remember the Documentation Team mailing list,
documentation@global.libreoffice.org
For more information on how to review and update LibreOffice user guides (including image
creation, cross-referencing, indexing, and publishing), please see Chapter 2, Producing LibreOffice
User Guides, in this book.

For more information | 9