[FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book

M R matrobnew at hotmail.com
Sat Jan 27 12:04:13 PST 2018


Mick (et al):


All great stuff on your changes and review.  Thanks for addressing the table issue in the Menu chapter.   And the image max-width: I didn't even know that could be adjusted.  I had just ended up making all of my screenshots smaller so as to get around that distortion issue.


I think the ePub book proof looks really good. The pdf one doesn't seem to handle page-breaks very gracefully (among other issues), but it doesn't appear that there's a way to handle that at the level of the content-edit platform itself.  Nor does the pdf seem to auto-generate a table of contents, which is a more significant failing -- but again these must be issues common to all Floss manuals in pdf.  Or maybe there are settings you can fiddle with specific to generating PDFs on the platform.


In the "Recording" chapter, yes I do still see my bracketed comment/query about whether that Mac-specific config stuff was still applicable to 2.x.   Certainly we should remove the comment.  But it's still an open question to me whether we should remove any or all of the original Mac config info that follows too--and I think that can only be settled via experimentation with a Mac.  So Rosalind or another Mac person will have to address that.  I think we decided in general that we would *not* preserve in this manual any info pertaining only to 1.x versions of Audacity, at least unless it was clearly flagged as such.


Mick, as to your final suggestion about moving the chapters around, I certainly see the logic insofar as the Tutorial chapters are much more 'fun'/interesting to read (as they were to re-write).  However, there is probably a more compelling logic to walking through the UI systematically before diving into those tutorials, since at many points they embed the assumption that you know where to find a given menu item, or they only use the quickest shorthand (like "Go to Edit > Tracks > Split Track") rather than giving you screenshots or any more detailed guidance on the UI.  Further, at least in the ePub format where the menu is readily accessible, it's easy enough for the reader to skip straight to the tutorials if they choose to.  That is another reason, though, why having a TOC (and ideally a clickable one) is pretty vital for the PDF version too.


Anyway, thanks again for your work on this.  If Rosalind can take a look at that Mac config stuff in the Record chapter, and if you know any magic you can do with the PDF-generate settings, then I think we're good to go for this iteration.


Matt





________________________________
From: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net> on behalf of mick at flossmanuals.net <mick at flossmanuals.net>
Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2018 4:09 AM
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book


Hi there,


I've had a chance to review this, Great work!


Just one thing I think needs to be looked at

  *   There's still a comment visible on Mac recording questions - it does seem like this might need some simplification here

Here are some thing I did.

  *   I've added 10px padding to table which I think helps.
  *   I've removed a legacy issue about linux recording issues.
  *   I've increased the max-width of image display to  800px , height:Auto to help with some image distortions. This seems to be fine on screen but doesn't take for the pdf,


I've generated pdfs and epubs here for testing too.

http://objavi.booktype.pro:80/data/books/audacity-en-2018.01.27-11.59.46.epub<http://objavi.booktype.pro/data/books/audacity-en-2018.01.27-11.59.46.epub>

http://objavi.booktype.pro:80/data/books/audacity-en-2018.01.27-12.00.12.pdf<http://objavi.booktype.pro/data/books/audacity-en-2018.01.27-12.00.12.pdf>



More general feedback is that the chapter under tutorials look great. Good work.

I would be tempted to move them right to the front of the book as a more task focused start, and to move installation and the explanations of the file menus in the appendix.

That way the reader can get started trying things out right away. That's just a suggestion tho.



Thanks

Mick


On 26/01/18 00:14, M R wrote:

Hi Martin:


It does need proofreading, as its been almost completely rewritten as part of the update to 2.x.  Mick has offered to do that this weekend, but a pair of fresh eyes probably wouldn't hurt either--as long as Katou is reasonably expeditious, since we are trying to wrap this up and get it republished so it can actually get to users.  Localization is another and certainly important issue: my only working language (at the level of something like this manual) is English, and if someone wanted to translate the revision into other languages that would be a good thing, but also I think a separate project.    Finally, I don't know if Katou has prior expertise with Audacity, but if so, you could mention that this manual is far from comprehensive, esp in the 'How to' or tutorial chapters, and there's always opportunity to add in more chapters with additional functionality.  Which would, again, though, be something we'd want to address in a further iteration of the manual, not the imminent one.


Matt


________________________________
From: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net><mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net> on behalf of Martin Kean <Martin.Kean at op.ac.nz><mailto:Martin.Kean at op.ac.nz>
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2018 4:01 PM
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book


Hi Maren and Matt,


I've just added Katou as a user, who is interested in proofreading and localisation, along with writing and editing. Does the Audacity manual need proofreading?


Username: katou
Email: katou at live.it<mailto:katou at live.it>


Thanks, Martin

________________________________
From: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net><mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net> on behalf of Maren Hachmann <maren at goos-habermann.de><mailto:maren at goos-habermann.de>
Sent: Friday, 26 January 2018 3:35:58 a.m.
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book

Yes, same URL - maybe something with your browser cache not refreshing?

Maren

Am 25.01.2018 um 09:04 schrieb Mick Chesterman:
> Great but strange.
>
> What URL are you testing
> I was testing here where it is still 12px for me on Firefox
> http://write.flossmanuals.net/start-with-inkscape/test-chapter-for-trying-out-styling/
/chapter: Test-Chapter-For-Trying-Out-Styling / Start with ...<http://write.flossmanuals.net/start-with-inkscape/test-chapter-for-trying-out-styling/>
write.flossmanuals.net
Test Chapter (for trying out styling) This chapter is meant for trying out how to best style the book. This is a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + A. This is a special note ...



>
> Thanks
> Mick
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Discuss [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net] On Behalf Of
>> Maren Hachmann
>> Sent: 24 January 2018 21:34
>> To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>> Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book
>>
>> I don't see any problems, it seemst to have worked just fine, see screenshot.
>>
>> Thank you very much, Mick!
>>
>> Maren
>>
>> Am 24.01.2018 um 21:33 schrieb Rosalind Lord:
>>> Mick, would you like me to help with this? I have lots of experience
>>> coding HTML and CSS.
>>>
>>> - Rosalind
>>>
>>>> On Jan 23, 2018, at 11:59 PM, Mick Chesterman
>> <M.Chesterman at mmu.ac.uk<mailto:M.Chesterman at mmu.ac.uk>
>>>> <mailto:M.Chesterman at mmu.ac.uk>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi there,
>>>>
>>>> I've added an override but it doesn't seem to have taken.
>>>> Can you start a ticket here and let's try to solve this together.
>>>> https://gitlab.com/flossmanuals/fm_booktype/issues
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>> Mick
>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: Discuss [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net] On
>>>>> Behalf Of Maren Hachmann
>>>>> Sent: 23 January 2018 23:16
>>>>> To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>> <mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>> Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book
>>>>>
>>>>> Piggy-backing, as I've got a CSS change request, too:
>>>>> The font size for ordered / unordered lists is too small by default
>>>>> (12px instead of 13px for all other text in a manual), because the
>>>>> lists are not wrapped in paragraphs (which have a font size of 13),
>>>>> and inherit the body font size.
>>>>>
>>>>> As this doesn't only affect the Inkscape guide, but all books on the
>>>>> site, and all lists in them, it needs to be fixed on server level.
>>>>> Fixing each list individually, and thus having inline styles that
>>>>> might mess up exporting would be possible, but tedious and ugly.
>>>>>
>>>>> Could you please set the font size for lists inside the content area
>>>>> to 13, too?
>>>>>
>>>>> CSS to modify, starting line 1574 in booki.css:
>>>>>
>>>>> #full-view-content p, #bookcontent p, #bookcontent ol, #bookcontent
>>>>> ul {
>>>>> font-size: 13px;
>>>>> line-height: 140%;
>>>>> margin: 1em 0;
>>>>> padding: 0;
>>>>> }
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Maren
>>>>>
>>>>> Am 23.01.2018 um 04:31 schrieb M R:
>>>>>> Thanks, Mick -- the weekend would be fine with me.  Maybe best to
>>>>>> have someone who has some familiarity with the old book, and in
>>>>>> general with the folkways of FM.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I may have mentioned this before, but there's one specific
>>>>>> formatting issue I'd like you (or whoever reviews) to consider,
>>>>>> aside from whatever else comes up.  In the Menu Bar chapter there
>>>>>> is extensive use of tables to hold the menu information.  As I did
>>>>>> wherever possible, here I preserved the formatting from the
>>>>>> original book, where these tables were set to zero cell padding and
>>>>>> no border.  This worked well enough in the original version, when
>>>>>> each cell entry was at most a single sentence in length, and it
>>>>>> resulted in a nice clean design.  However, Audacity 2.x's much more
>>>>>> extensive use of submenus forced me to make considerably longer
>>>>>> entries in some of those table cells, and I'm not certain how
>>>>>> readable the end result is for some tables.  I think the solution
>>>>>> would be pretty straightforward: either adding a bit of cell padding to
>> each table, or adding a narrow border.
>>>>>> But I didn't want to go either way without consultation.  I don't
>>>>>> think this issue afflicts any chapter beyond the Menu Bar ch.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Matt
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> -----
>>>>>> *From:* Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>>> <mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>> on behalf of Mick
>>>>>> Chesterman <M.Chesterman at mmu.ac.uk<mailto:M.Chesterman at mmu.ac.uk>
>> <mailto:M.Chesterman at mmu.ac.uk>>
>>>>>> *Sent:* Monday, January 22, 2018 1:00 AM
>>>>>> *To:* discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>>> <mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>>> *Subject:* Re: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> HI there,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This sounds good. Can  anyone step forward to have a look over the
>>>>>> Audacity manual before we do a pdf and epub print for the front page?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I can do it at the weekend if not.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Mick
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Mick Chesterman
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Educational Innovation and Enterprise Tutor &
>>>>>>
>>>>>> EdLab Project Developer
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Department of Childhood, Youth and Education Studies.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Manchester Metropolitan University
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Web: http://edlab.org.uk <http://edlab.org.uk/> / Twitter:
>>>>>> @EdLabMMU
>>>>>>
>>>>>> EdLab MMU - Exploring Educational Innovation and ...
>>>>> <http://edlab.org.uk/>
>>>>>> edlab.org.uk <http://edlab.org.uk>
>>>>>> Exploring Educational Innovation and Enterprise in Education -
>>>>>> Creatively generating projects rooted in community engagement and
>>>>>> student experience.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Phone: 0161 2472060
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> /Please note: My working days are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and
>>>>> Thursday/
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *From:*Discuss [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net] *On
>>>>>> Behalf Of *M R
>>>>>> *Sent:* 18 January 2018 21:05
>>>>>> *To:* discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>>> <mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>>> *Subject:* Re: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Mick:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It looks to me like other folks have finished adding in their
>>>>>> pieces to the non-Windows sections of the manual re-write, so
>>>>>> whenever you get a chance at some quality control (just because I
>>>>>> assume that someone needs to, who hasn't been a
>>>>>> writer-contributor), then we can wrap this up and get it published,
>>>>>> to start helping whoever out there might actually want to use it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Actually, I suppose someone else could handle the review too -- not
>>>>>> sure what the protocol is here.  But I just wanted to make sure
>>>>>> this stays in the queue as a near-term task.  I assume we all have
>>>>>> day jobs 😊(I'm a college professor so I was just on holiday break
>>>>>> -- that's why I could find 50 hrs or so to do the bulk of the rewrite).
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> thanks,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Matt
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> -----
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *From:*Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>>> <mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>>> <mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>> on behalf of Mick
>>>>>> Chesterman <M.Chesterman at mmu.ac.uk<mailto:M.Chesterman at mmu.ac.uk>
>> <mailto:M.Chesterman at mmu.ac.uk>
>>>>> <mailto:M.Chesterman at mmu.ac.uk>>
>>>>>> *Sent:* Friday, January 12, 2018 4:12 AM
>>>>>> *To:* discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>>> <mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>> <mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>>> *Subject:* Re: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> To exit  chapter titles you just double click into the title on the
>>>>>> chapter list screen.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *From:*Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>>> <mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>>> <mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.flossmanuals.net>> on behalf of M R
>>>>>> <matrobnew at hotmail.com<mailto:matrobnew at hotmail.com> <mailto:matrobnew at hotmail.com>
>>>>>> <mailto:matrobnew at hotmail.com>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *Sent:*12 January 2018 10:55
>>>>>> *To:* discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net<mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>>> <mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>> <mailto:discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>>>>>> *Subject:* Re: [FM Discuss] next steps on Audacity book
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I actually wanted to edit some of the other chapter TITLES a bit,
>>>>>> but couldn't figure out a way to do that.  No big deal though, as
>>>>>> the current titles will serve.  I did drag one entire chapter out
>>>>>> of the to-be-published structure and down to the bottom: that was
>>>>>> "MP3 INSTALLATION ON WINDOWS" bc it's no longer necessary to
>>>>>> install the
>>>>> LAME
>>>>>> MP3 codec separately.  Just one of many ways that Audacity has
>>>>>> gotten more user-friendly over the years.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "Before acting on this email or opening any attachments you should
>>>>>> read the Manchester Metropolitan University email disclaimer
>>>>>> available on its website http://www.mmu.ac.uk/emaildisclaimer "
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Discuss mailing list
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>>>>>> <mailto:Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
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>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "Before acting on this email or opening any attachments you should
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