firebird-docs

[Firebird-docs] Documentation Help

[Darcy O'N. <ds...@sk...>]

Hello,

I've been looking at ways I can help the Firebird project and since most 
of my skills are in desktop publishing and other creative areas, 
(websites) I figured I'd stick with the document section to see how I 
could help.

Basically, I've been playing around with the XML documents and I think 
it may be possible to directly import it into Corel Ventura to give the 
documents a more polished look (PDF form anyway). I've created a rough 
sample PDF document (highlights style, not content right now) and put it 
up at http://firebird.methyl.ca for anyone to look over.

Let me know what you think, and if we want to go in this direction just 
list some suggestions and I'll work them into the document.

I do have some time every now and them that I can direct towards the 
Firebird project.  My goal would be to give the Firebird documents a 
professionally published look and feel to help increase it's growth.

Darcy O'Neil

Re: [Firebird-docs] Documentation Help

[Paul V. <pa...@vi...>]

Hi Darcy,

> Basically, I've been playing around with the XML documents and I
> think it may be possible to directly import it into Corel Ventura to
> give the documents a more polished look (PDF form anyway). I've
> created a rough sample PDF document (highlights style, not content
> right now) and put it up at http://firebird.methyl.ca for anyone to
> look over.

I'm impressed. It looks *very* professional indeed!

But... the style is not what I would prefer. The cover page makes me
think of the kind of company where all the employees are clean-shaven
and wear a suit and tie. I can't really relate to that - probably
because I look like a bum myself :-)

On the following pages, the frame and decoration are nice, but I only
like that for very small brochure-like documents. For tutorials,
manuals, refguides etc. I prefer a minimum of decoration (if at all)
and no frame around the text body.

Of course, all this is a just my opinion - it has a lot to do with
personal taste. Please don't see it as criticizing the *quality* of
your design: I mean it when I say I'm impressed!


Ventura imports XML now, but is it also DocBook-aware? Or
alternatively, can it process Formatting Objects? It would be great if
you could develop a style we all like and then automate the process.


Greetings,
Paul Vinkenoog


PS:
What if you changed the grey in the logo to a warm sand color? I know,
we have a grey bg on the website too, but I personally dislike it.

Re: [Firebird-docs] Documentation Help

[Darcy O'N. <ds...@sk...>]

Hello,

>I'm impressed. It looks *very* professional indeed!
>
>But... the style is not what I would prefer. The cover page makes me
>think of the kind of company where all the employees are clean-shaven
>and wear a suit and tie. I can't really relate to that - probably
>because I look like a bum myself :-)
>  
>
Thanks! I use to work for a giant corporation, so it's almost impossible 
to get that style out of my system.

>On the following pages, the frame and decoration are nice, but I only
>like that for very small brochure-like documents. For tutorials,
>manuals, refguides etc. I prefer a minimum of decoration (if at all)
>and no frame around the text body.
>
>Of course, all this is a just my opinion - it has a lot to do with
>personal taste. Please don't see it as criticizing the *quality* of
>your design: I mean it when I say I'm impressed!
>  
>
One thing I've learned about desktop publishing and that's every one has 
a style of their own. Basically, I just throw stuff out there and see 
what sticks. Hopefully, we can work away at it and come to a unanimous 
decision. (Probably not, but I'm sure we'll try).

>Ventura imports XML now, but is it also DocBook-aware? Or
>alternatively, can it process Formatting Objects? It would be great if
>you could develop a style we all like and then automate the process.
>  
>
Ventura is not DocBook aware, basically you map the tags to a Ventura 
style and then publish it to the selected format (PDF, print, etc.). As 
for automation, it can be done but professional doc's always need a good 
eye to go over it. I'm willing to do that.

>PS:
>What if you changed the grey in the logo to a warm sand color? I know,
>we have a grey bg on the website too, but I personally dislike it.
>  
>
Gray matches the colour of all those corporate execs!

Darcy O'Neil

Re: [Firebird-docs] Documentation Help

[Lester C. <le...@ls...>]

Paul Vinkenoog wrote:

>>Basically, I've been playing around with the XML documents and I
>>think it may be possible to directly import it into Corel Ventura to
>>give the documents a more polished look (PDF form anyway). I've
>>created a rough sample PDF document (highlights style, not content
>>right now) and put it up at http://firebird.methyl.ca for anyone to
>>look over.
> 
> On the following pages, the frame and decoration are nice, but I only
> like that for very small brochure-like documents. For tutorials,
> manuals, refguides etc. I prefer a minimum of decoration (if at all)
> and no frame around the text body.
> 
> Of course, all this is a just my opinion - it has a lot to do with
> personal taste. Please don't see it as criticizing the *quality* of
> your design: I mean it when I say I'm impressed!

I agree with Paul here. I find the red bars distracting, but
the whole point of XML is that you can use your own style :)

Personally I will stick with 'plain text'.

This does however bring back the problem of navigation. I
like the way the old Borland docs had the 'library' and
dropped into the correct 'book' as required. Can Ventura
manage that?

-- 
Lester Caine
-----------------------------
L.S.Caine Electronic Services

Re: [Firebird-docs] Documentation Help

[Darcy O'N. <ds...@sk...>]

Lester Caine wrote:

> I agree with Paul here. I find the red bars distracting, but
> the whole point of XML is that you can use your own style :)
>
> Personally I will stick with 'plain text'.

Ok, making modifications to Venture is very easy so I'll play around and 
see if I can come up with something a little less distracting but still 
more than plain paper. Also, I should look into creating a marketing 
brochure for Firebird.

> This does however bring back the problem of navigation. I
> like the way the old Borland docs had the 'library' and
> dropped into the correct 'book' as required. Can Ventura
> manage that?

If you mean having a "linked master index" it may be possible. I'll have 
to look, but I do know that when Ventura outputs to PDF the Table of 
Contents and Index link to the appropriate place in the document.

Darcy O'Neil