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Improve KDE Help Center

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Tags: kde4, help docs, help center, online help, khelpcenter kde4, help docs, help center, online help, khelpcenter kde4, help docs, help center, online help, khelpcenter
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tjk
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Improve KDE Help Center

Thu Oct 08, 2009 6:04 am
If I could rename the subject of this brainstorm, it would be:
Improve KDE Help Center - Incorporate Online Information
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I recently upgraded to KDE 4.3.2. Something that I like very much about the newer versions of KDE, is the ability to download themes, styles, wallpaper, and other files, directly from within the system settings.

Unfortunately the KDE Help Center has not transformed in a consistent manner with the rest of KDE's recent versions. I have always thought that KDE's help system lacked usefulness. I seldom use it because I never can find the information or documents that I need. There is much that could be improved, but over the years this simple app has never been developed.

One of my ideas for the help center, is to simply give it the ability to view online help documents or at least have it offer to download the needed document(s) that would contain information that is being searched for. I think that the help system would be much more appealing to users if a couple of improvements were made. I hope that somehow this feature will soon be adopted by the KDE Help Center team.
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Something which was brought to my attention was the possibility of giving the help center a search engine that would search a user defined list of sites (although the help center would supply a list of useful sites) for a keyword(s) or phrase. It may only give a brief description of the result and the user could then choose to open various results. It wouldn't have to have an internal browser, it could open the user's default browser. This would make the help center a means of integrating offline manuals-docs and online information.

Further discussion of this topic can be found at: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=82794&p=132740#p132740

Last edited by tjk on Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:51 am, edited 5 times in total.
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TheBlackCat
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Improve KDE Help Center

Thu Oct 08, 2009 7:18 pm
Please make a separate idea for each specific suggestion, like the one in the last paragraph. "Improve KDE Help Center" is not specific enough to be useful, and there can only be one idea per topic.


Man is the lowest-cost, 150-pound, nonlinear, all-purpose computer system which can be mass-produced by unskilled labor.
-NASA in 1965
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Primoz
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Improve KDE Help Center

Thu Oct 08, 2009 7:45 pm
I agree with TheBlackCat, but I still approved the idea as it is one of ideas that I think are good.
I advise you to state which of suggestion is the one worth keeping.
In terms of less "clutter" on disk I'm more for second idea, so that help centre is on "cloud".


Primoz, proud to be a member of KDE forums since 2008-Nov.
bratwurst
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Improve KDE Help Center

Fri Oct 09, 2009 5:34 pm
Humm. Adding comments for other users to see on helpposts would be nice. Maybe a "help wiki"? I alwayes liked that about the php documenation
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JanGerrit
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Improve KDE Help Center

Fri Oct 09, 2009 6:21 pm
The users could add their own tips and tricks so the content would be more user oriented. Some people could try to sort it a bit to get a "professional" documentation structure/style.


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tjk
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Improve KDE Help Center

Fri Oct 09, 2009 11:20 pm
JanGerrit wrote:The users could add their own tips and tricks so the content would be more user oriented. Some people could try to sort it a bit to get a "professional" documentation structure/style.


I like this idea, as long as the topics are clear, concise, current, and address the specific subject that has been requested by the user in the "help center". I wouldn't want it to become like a forum. Even though there is invaluable information in various forums, I tend to have to spend a long time looking for something to answer my question. In a forum there are so many unanswered topics and, in many cases, too much information to peruse before finding the info that I require. A wiki may be the way to go, but I still think there is already good "how-tos" and documents which should be directly used by the KDE help center.
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Kubuntiac
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Improve KDE Help Center

Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:23 pm
I saw an app once with a really nice integrated help / online system. You could hover the mouse over question marks to get short descriptions of things or push F1 and then click on any window / menu item to get help for it. The trick was, all the help info was delivered locally in a window of the app, but the data all came from a publically available wiki, which got them more people contributing to their documentation, and more people using it (because it was right there in the app, and context sensisitve too)


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