From: Steve H. <dig...@mi...> - 2005-08-15 20:53:59
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Don, Just one voice here, but I would rather see the extra effort going into refining the manual than printing it. Hopefully, GRAMPS features are easy and intuitive enough that a thick book isn't necessary. A good, concise online PDF of the guide (read current) could then be downloaded by any user and have only about 20 pages of printing. Steve -----Original Message----- From: Don Allingham <don...@co...> Sent: Aug 15, 2005 4:29 PM To: gra...@li..., Gramps Devel <gra...@li...> Subject: [Gramps-devel] Printed manuals I'm trying to gauge the interest in printed manuals for GRAMPS. While GRAMPS provides a free online copy of its manual, some people just prefer to have a real book. In the past, offering a printed manual has been beyond the ability of an Open Source project. However, new technology is making this possible. A company founded by one of the heads of Red Hat Linux, lulu.com, now makes it possible to have books printed, bound, and shipped on demand, one book at a time. This would make it possible for users to order a printed copy of the GRAMPS manual without any expense to the GRAMPS project. Our best guess at this time is that such a book would cost about $10 plus shipping. This would be pretty much near the publishing cost, with any minor profits going to paying for the GRAMPS web sites (however, please note that this is not being viewed as a money making effort by the project). This would require some work on our part to do this, so we are trying to figure out if this would be worth our time. So, the question is: Would this be a worthwhile effort? Would you be interested in purchasing a printed GRAMPS User's Manual if it was available? Don ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is Sponsored by the Better Software Conference & EXPO September 19-22, 2005 * San Francisco, CA * Development Lifecycle Practices Agile & Plan-Driven Development * Managing Projects & Teams * Testing & QA Security * Process Improvement & Measurement * http://www.sqe.com/bsce5sf _______________________________________________ Gramps-devel mailing list Gra...@li... https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gramps-devel |
From: Alex R. <sh...@gr...> - 2005-08-15 21:00:02
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Steve, On 08/15/2005 03:53:53 PM, Steve Hall wrote: >=20 > Just one voice here, but I would rather see the extra effort going > into refining the manual than printing it. Hopefully, GRAMPS features > are easy and intuitive enough that a thick book isn't necessary. A > good, concise online PDF of the guide (read current) could then be > downloaded by any user and have only about 20 pages of printing. We already offer PDF manual, and it's 131 pages. I hate to admit that I am responsible for most of the bloat, but I don't see how we can remove any large portion of it without sacrificing the quality (and thus helpfulness) of the manual. The manual readable for the geeks is probably aimed at the wrong crowd. The manual for Aunt Martha has to be detailed enough. Where are we in this tradeoff? I am open to suggestions though :-) Alex --=20 Alexander Roitman http://www.gramps-project.org |
From: Bret B. <br...@bu...> - 2005-08-16 01:49:36
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On Mon, 15 Aug 2005, Alex Roitman wrote: > > Steve, > > On 08/15/2005 03:53:53 PM, Steve Hall wrote: >> >> Just one voice here, but I would rather see the extra effort going >> into refining the manual than printing it. Hopefully, GRAMPS features >> are easy and intuitive enough that a thick book isn't necessary. A >> good, concise online PDF of the guide (read current) could then be >> downloaded by any user and have only about 20 pages of printing. > > We already offer PDF manual, and it's 131 pages. I hate to admit > that I am responsible for most of the bloat, but I don't see how > we can remove any large portion of it without sacrificing the > quality (and thus helpfulness) of the manual. > > The manual readable for the geeks is probably aimed at the wrong > crowd. The manual for Aunt Martha has to be detailed enough. > Where are we in this tradeoff? > > I am open to suggestions though :-) > > Alex > > Without having read the PDF file, I suggest that a well-written PDF file should be sufficient. If the file is written for the "Aunt Martha" crowd, then it should be able to do the job for everyone. It would then be simply a matter of a person printing the file, then storing it in a ring-binder, or stapling it with a staple gun, and that should e adequate, for a reference manual. -- Bret Busby Armadale West Australia .............. "So once you do know what the question actually is, you'll know what the answer means." - Deep Thought, Chapter 28 of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy In Four Parts", written by Douglas Adams, published by Pan Books, 1992 .................................................... |