Hi all,

Irina and I are starting the documentation for Calligra Author and will document it step by step as the new features drop in. Currently it is only a clone of Calligra Words and no documentation exists whatsoever.

We will work on a first run tutorial, but since the documentation is aimed at the users we would like to have your input: what are your most burning questions? What do you want to know to get started as fast as possible?

Ideally you could ask your questions in bold: How do I do this? will trigger our attention

Thank you for your input. Please also don't repeat questions if those are already asked in this thread.

I guess the very first thing one would wonder is "How do I begin the project", and "How does Author benefit writers in making production easy". With the current road-map already planned, I wonder if the working methods will differ compared to Words. So my questions would be:

How do you begin plotting in Author?

How do you separate, and jump between, scenes and chapters?

How does revisioning and editing work within Author?

tushantin wrote::D I guess the very first thing one would wonder is "How do I begin the project", and "How does Author benefit writers in making production easy". With the current road-map already planned, I wonder if the working methods will differ compared to Words. So my questions would be:

How do you begin plotting in Author?

How do you separate, and jump between, scenes and chapters?

How does revisioning and editing work within Author?

At the beginning it will be very close to Words so there won't be that much difference -- "how do I begin the project" is a matter of "what do I see, and what can I do, when I start the application". As Author grows users' needs will be integrated in it, and we'll document each new "makes it easier" thing as it appears.

If you want a top-down plotting feature, please say that in the Feature Requests thread! (Oh, I see you already did, the project binder.) Some people plot/outline first and then write, others (like me) start writing and do the outline after the fact. This may also be different for fiction and nonfiction, of course.

irina_r wrote:At the beginning it will be very close to Words so there won't be that much difference -- "how do I begin the project" is a matter of "what do I see, and what can I do, when I start the application". As Author grows users' needs will be integrated in it, and we'll document each new "makes it easier" thing as it appears.

I'm sorry, I probably wasn't clear when I said that. I meant those questions to be answered in documentations for the curious, and not because I wanted to know (I already know what it is and how it probably will work). It's all the matter of making things convenient for people to know what a software is and how quickly they can get started, rather wait for them to try and find out on their own.

But most importantly, the last three questions of my post. Even if it doesn't have an outliner, there at least could be means to create and jump between chapters at ease. UberWriter currently does that with Markdown tags rather than an outliner / navigator, so perhaps we could have some quick innovations temporarily. Perhaps a Table of Contents with headers and levels? Or even Breadcrumbs, similar to most Linux file managers or Zim Desktop Wiki? <--- These aren't feature requests, just mere examples on what features the developers may plan, and what the user may expect. When the first release is made, the users would be expecting something different than Words (even if it is a fork), so those changes could be emphasized.

Do note, I'm just helping out with brainstorming, since we need ideas for the documentation and how to get things about. This is partly also due to my lack of knowledge on how the new features are expected to work.