LibreOffice Base User Guide: Getting started with macros

I have downloaded this chapter from the proofreading folder and mean to copy-edit it over the next few days. I have not done any LibreOffice work before, and I must say I find the Alfresco site confusing and difficult to navigate.

If this were an OpenOffice doc, I would have retracted it as well as downloading it but so far I haven't found anything on the page corresponding to this operation. According to the guidelines I am supposed to put my "wiki user id" (whatever that is!)in the "checkout" column, but I can't see a checkout column either.

I looked at the Help and couldn't make much of that. Hopefully someone will give me a bit of guidance.

There are two versions of the user interface to the LibreOffice Alfresco
site, which has been customised for the LO Docs team. Therefore the Help
that comes with Alfresco isn't going to be much help; best to ignore it.

David Nelson is still working on the customisation, so the chapter on
"Using LO's Alfresco website" is out of date in some places and unlikely
to be updated until David has reached a stable point in the
customisation.

So... at this time we are using this user interface to Alfresco:
http://documentation.libreoffice.org/ NOT alfresco.libreoffice.org. The
instructions in "Using LO's Alfresco website" are accurate for most of
that user interface. (I will update that line in the document now,
because that is the single most misleading statement in the existing
document.)

When using that interface, the instructions for editing offline show the
row of icons that appear under the document (on the other interface, the
icons are off to the right-hand side). The first icon (Edit Offline)
locks the file (to show others that it is being worked on) and creates a
working copy for you to download and edit.

The statement about putting your "wiki user id" (whatever that is!) in
the "checkout" column" refers to a page on the wiki, not on Alfresco
(similar to OOo's task list page). So far, I don't think anyone is
actually using that LO wiki page to track work.

Hope this helps, and sorry about the confusing instructions.

Lastly, I don't see any docs in the Proofreading space for Getting
Started, so I'm a bit mystified about what file you have attempted to
check out.

--Jean

Ah, now that I've read the subject line more carefully, I see that you
collected this from the Base Guide space. Martin had put it in the wrong
place; it belongs in Getting Started and has already been published.
I'll move it.

--Jean

Hi Hazel,

Sorry you find Alfresco difficult to navigate, and sorry that the
contributor documentation on the subject is not up to date. I'll be
addressing the problem as soon as possible. Meanwhile, do feel free to
ask any questions here on the list, and I'll respond as quickly and as
thoroughly as possible.

@Jean: I'm busy on a client project for the next 10 days to come, and
I'm also waiting for mail back about the 2 key problems with the Share
interface: inability to use accented characters in folder names, and a
curious problem with uploading .odt files that has emerged recently
(it *would* have to be .odt files rather than any other format...
there's no problem uploading PDFs, and it's only in the English
content space, not any of the other ones). The upgrade did not fix
those problems.

If I don't find rapid solutions to the aforesaid issues, maybe it
would be pragmatic to side-step them and simple work with the Explorer
interface (http://documentation.libreoffice.org), which has no such
problems. That way, I can give a green light to Jeremy to re-implement
the workflow described in his original guide, and we can update the
contributor documentation quickly.

After that, the other problem I'm wrestling with is configuring the
Drupal installation at http://media.libreoffice.org to interact with
Alfresco, so that we get a public no-login showcase for the content on
Alfresco.

As soon as I've dealt with the above, I'll be available to work on
documentation - starting with the Power User Guide to be developed
from the existing technical writer's guide contributed by those
students.

I'll be following up on my last unanswered mail to my mentor this
weekend. I'll mail back to the list with news as soon as possible -
certainly sometime within the next 2 weeks. In any case, I'm not
asleep at the wheel here... :wink: