Category Archives: HelpHub

Femy Praseeth 10:12 pm on March 15, 2023
Tags: 6.2, ,   

Call for volunteers to help with 6.2 end user documentation

The Docs team needs your help to update and revise the End User Documentation (HelpHub) for the upcoming WordPress 6.2 release, expected on March 28, 2023.

You can find a list of all the tasks in the 6.2 project board in the Documentation’s repo on GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/.

The tasks have been sorted into medium priority tasks and high priority tasks. The team plans to complete the high priority tasks by the 6.2 scheduled release date.

How you can help

If you are new to the Docs team, you can select from the list of good first issues.

If you are new to contributing to WordPress, you can review this onboarding post with training videos and links to help you get started.

Based on what you are interested in, review the medium priority tasks, high priority tasks or good first issues.

Mention in a comment on the GitHub issue you would like to work on and someone on the Docs team will assign it to you.

Once a task is assigned to you, the following two videos show how to help with updating the existing articles in End User Documentation (HelpHub).

Video onboarding to End User documentation

Video showing how to help with updating the existing articles on GitHub

If you have questions or need help, ask in the docs channel on the Make WordPress SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. or directly in the GitHub issue itself. If your meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. or firm can give a blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. of time to help, do include the Release co-leads for 6.2 documentation in your message: (Slack IDs) @bph, @zzap, @Femy, and @abhanonstopnewsuk.

Resources

If you need a test site with WordPress 6.2 pre-installed, you can use this app provided by InstaWP to spin up a new temporary website set. It is preloaded with Theme Test data and other pre-configuration, ready to go. This new site will be available to use for four hours. After that, if you need another test site to contribute to docs, you can visit the link again and create a new temporary site.


Props to @bph @webcommsat @milana_cap for collaborating and reviewing this article.

#6-2, #docs, #helphub

Estela Rueda 5:58 pm on February 7, 2023
Tags:   

Future plans for HelpHub

At the end of January, the docs and metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. teams launched the new site for documentation, internally known as HelpHub. The team’s work is not done as we are still updating old articles and continue writing new ones. The goal is to release new feature articles as close to the latest WordPress version release as possible.

Still missing and tracking

  1. Update legacy colors #26
  2. The change log is still a work in progress #6
  3. Finish the documentation inventory https://github.com/orgs/WordPress/projects/23
  4. Review the handbook pages for HH and update all
  5. Review and close HH meta tickets
  6. Review and close tickets on HH developing repository

Next steps

Promote the work, tell the world! Announce it everywhere. It has been 8 years since the HelpHub project kicked-off. Most of the initial members are not around as contributors any longer.

The documentation team will continue working in bringing the updated documentation and promote collaboration with other teams, like:

  1. Discuss with polyglots teamPolyglots Team Polyglots Team is a group of multilingual translators who work on translating plugins, themes, documentation, and front-facing marketing copy. https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/. how can we help in implementing the new site map and reorganizing articles that are already translated. This effort will be different with each local team as it will depend on the local teams processes and availability.
  2. Update content with polyglots – can we create GH issue track per rosetta site? What would be the best process for each locale.
  3. Introducing the new documentation and developer sites in WordCamps, during Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. so we can encourage other teams to implement the changes in their own languages.
  4. Work with the training team to create a crosslink Resources blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. where we can link Learn videos/courses/tutorials and vice versa.

Props to @milana_cap for reviewing the content of this article.

#helphub

Estela Rueda 11:46 am on January 24, 2023  

New look, new site, new HelpHub

The docs team have been working hard on creating the end-user documentation or HelpHub. It took a very long time, 8 years to be exact since the project kicked-off, and we reached the goal. Follow the journey from these posts Kicking off HelpHub and New design for HelpHub in WordPress.org.

Introduction to the new Documentation site

The look changed to be in harmony with the rest of the WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ template. The new features were created with the goal to facilitate search for end-users. Some of these features are:

  • a simplified sitemap divided into 4 categories and each categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. has several subcategories,
  • better definition between end-user and developers documentation, meaning that several articles will be moved into developers.wordpress.org in the next few weeks,
  • change to the menu item to documentation instead of support,
  • a new menu, breadcrumbs and other features

The four categories

The goal of the end-user documentation is to provide information to non-developers or new users so they try resolving their issue by themselves instead of going directly to the Forums.

To improve search, the team worked on reclassifying the articles into 4 main categories:

  • WordPress overview, where users can find general information about WordPress, versions, FAQs and resources.
  • Technical guides to help with installation, maintenance, and security.
  • Support guides to get familiar with the software and its features.
  • Customization where users can find instructions on how to use the BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor and default themes.
Image showing the documentation landing page with its four categories and subcategories.

End-user and developers documentation

When moving the articles from the Codex, there was a separation between developer-focused and end-user-focused documentation. Yet, developer articles were still available within in end-user documentation.

To help make the distinction better, all developer jargon has been removed from end-user documentation and moved to developer.wordpress.org.

Documentation instead of support

The menu item was support, the docs team has been looking into changing the menu item into documentation. Documentation is better description than support.

Features

Breadcrumbs and a submenu

Users can use the breadcrumbs to return to a specific page, category or subcategory without navigating all the way to the landing page.

A new submenu was added for fastest linking to developers documentation, the forums and the docs team make blog.

Sticky table of content for articles

The new TOC in the articles is a sticky item with one link to take the user back to the top.

Video showing how the sticky TOC works within an article.

Props to @milana_cap, @kenshino, and @atachibana for their direction on this project.

Props to @javiarce, @joen and @beafialho for their design guidance, help and commitment on the last stage.

Props to @ryelle for her amazing coding work.

Estela Rueda 2:20 pm on January 23, 2023
Tags:   

Support, forums, training or documentation

There are several ways to find information regarding the features or issues in WordPress and each one of them has a function and a time. This is a short explanation of what each means, the difference and when to use them.

What is what?

A good way to differentiate them is to define them and to provide use cases for each. None is better or worst than the other neither is any more or less important. It all depends on when they are used.

  • Support is 1:1, requires interaction and it is used for more urgent issues, whether is a chatbot or person and is immediate.
  • Forums are intended for broader help or best advice on specific topics. Most of the time is asynchronous but is monitored by a team or person, paid or volunteer. Most importantly, forums are community driven.
  • Documentation are basically instructions on how to do things. There is no interaction of any kind for questions. Literally, “what you read is what you get.”
  • Training creates lessons on topics. These can be on video or written form. Can be individual or part of a series. And training can be immediate or in the user’s own time.

Some use cases

Users require information for different reasons and search for it in different ways.

For instance, hosting companies use support, either by chat or call, to resolve a user’s issue. Whether is urgent or not, it usually is something that the user cannot solve by themselves or it has an immediate need for solution.

The forums are topical and in threads. They are very useful for discussions and to provide guidance over an issue or topic. Forums are monitored and conversation are mostly asynchronous. Some of the uses could be a school discussion group, product sales, best practices, product help, product how-to’s, etc.

When a user wants to learn fairly quick how to do something, following the steps in a documentation article is the best way. There are no interactions and the user reads it in their own time.

In opposition to wanting to deeply learn about a subject, then the user would search for a training lesson or course.

What can a user find in WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/

WordPress.org does not provide support. There is no team that will reply to questions 1:1 at any time. Instead there are the Forums that are monitored by contributors, volunteer and paid, that reply to questions posted.

There is documentation for end-users and developers and there are training lessons offered in Learn.

It is a strong recommendation by the documentation team to stop using the word support and instead refer to each instance with their respective name.

Props to @milana_cap and @atachibana for the review of this article.

#docs

Estela Rueda 4:16 pm on January 16, 2023
Tags:   

Development and design work continues on Helphub

Docs team, please refrain from updating/uploading articles on Helphub still. Work will continue until Friday 20 January.

I will update the team if we need more time.

For questions, pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” @estelaris on docs SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel.

#helphub

Estela Rueda 6:42 pm on January 7, 2023
Tags:   

There is work in progress in HelpHub (Documentation)

This post is to ask everyone who has access to HelpHub, to please refrain from adding, editing or publishing old or new articles as of the writing of this post.

MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. team is working on the replacement of the /support/ site for a /documentation/ site and whatever is not there as of today, will be lost.

Please hold off any updates until after 17 January 2023. If you have any questions, reach out to @estelaris on #docs SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. or leave a comment below.

Estela Rueda 9:18 pm on November 14, 2022
Tags: ,   

The next meeting is scheduled with the following details:

When: Tuesday, 15 November, 2022, 04:00 PM GMT+1

Where: #docs channel on Slack

Agenda:

  1. Attendance
  2. Note-taker & Facilitator selection for Next Meeting
  3. Projects checks
  4. Alterations on HelpHub design pages to sync with new WP.org template
    • Changelog is a collapsible item
    • Changelog and Feedback form switched placement
    • Adding descriptions to categories & subcategories on landing page, will affect mobile length
    • Adding description to articles in categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. page (no description on subcategory) – will affect mobile length
    • Article content switch sides, long content to the left and article TOC to the right
    • Figma i1 vs i4
  5. First iteration for DevHub new design
    • Content review (landing page: what goes, what stays?)
    • Improvements only to articles not inside handbooks
    • Design in general
  6. Open floor

If there’s anything you’d like to discuss on the open floor, please leave the comment below.

#agenda, #meetings

Estela Rueda 9:01 pm on October 19, 2022
Tags: ,   

New design for HelpHub in WordPress.org

The end-user documentation or HelpHub will go through a transformation, both in the design and the site map. 

The refinements in the template will improve the user experience while searching for information. These improvements include one landing page for end-user and developers documentation that will be called Documentation. This is the entry port to both HelpHub and DevHub. Although this article focuses on HelpHub, there will be changes for DevHub in the future.

Showing the look of the new end-user documentation landing page showing the 4 categories and subcategories under each in two columns. There are links to developers documentation and the forums at the bottom of the page.

Better search

The new site map includes 4 main categories and subcategories under each. This will improve search and allow new articles to be added into the existing categories without creating a ‘miscellaneous’ categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging..

New site map showing categories and subcategories

New features

Documentation will have a new headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes.. The team is dropping the word ‘Support’ and replacing it with ‘Documentation’. This area of the website will contain reference information rather than be a place where users interact with the Support team as described in the Renaming WordPress.org Support to Documentation.

The new header for end-user documentation replaces the word Support for Documentation

A changelog was added to keep historic information on each article. The user will have a better idea of how recent the information is.

Example of changelog

Other features that will help searching are the breadcrumbs, a new documentation submenu to the categories, a more prominent table of content and, a highlighted link to Support Forums.

Example showing placement for breadcrumbs table of contents and documentation search box, including the Support Forums block.

Another new feature was the retirement of the hash character at the end of the headlines as they were an accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) issue and caused visual noise. The hash has been replaced by a link icon.

Appearance phases for the headlines

Documentation on mobile

The mobile version offers faster access to the specific topic in the article by using accordions to navigate long articles on mobile. The breadcrumbs, search and table of contents will remain at the top of the article.

Example of a documentation article on mobile.

The design

The design follows the style set by the News redesign. It is cleaner, jazzier and the new template opens the canvas to improve readability. Using also the same typography connects this design to the redesign of WordPress.

The color palette is simple and muted so as to not interfere with the multiple videos and screenshots used within the articles.

The work started at WCEU 2019 Contributors Day in Berlin. The following articles describe the work previously done.

Props to @milana_cap, @kenshino, and @atachibana for their direction on this project.

Props to @tobiasfeistmantl, @fmellitzer, @davidvie, @majaloncar, @pendraq, @igorel, @nobnob, @marcio-zebedeu, @chaion07, @netpassprodsr, @bph, @timohaver, @dmivelli, who contributed to the reclassification project.

Props to @melchoyce, @karmatosed, and @beafialho for their design guidance.

Props to @webcommsat and @marybaum for reviewing and editing help of this article.

#docs, #helphub

Estela Rueda 8:03 am on October 5, 2022
Tags: ,   

Reclassification of end-user documentation

The team did a second revision of the first recommended site map because we still found articles that should be moved to the developers documentation. The reason is that we want to keep the end-user documentation as clean as possible of developer jargon and make sure it only provides advice on how to use WordPress not how to alter it with code.

The main goal of article reclassification is to improve search and allow new articles to be added into the existing categories without creating a ‘miscellaneous’ categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging..

The first site map included 4 main categories and subcategories under each. The new recommendation maintains the 4 main categories, some subcategories have been renamed to better work in the future.

Link to the spreadsheet for better reading

The revision

As mentioned before, the review focused on removing all articles that were developer-focused. Some articles only require content review and move some of the too-technical parts. These parts were not discarded as they are still valuable information and will be moved to DevHub.

Categories and subcategories

The categories for end-user documentation were created to improve search, making it easier for the user to find the information. A secondary goal is to allow a continued learning path.

WordPress overview

WordPress Overview is the first category with 3 subcategories:

  • Where to start
  • FAQs
  • About WordPress

The intention of these subcategories is to provide a starting point for the new user and a quick access to resources to more seasoned users in the form of FAQs. About WordPress provides background information on how to become a contributor, WordPress’ history, etc.

Technical guides

Technical guides is the second category which includes 3 subcategories:

  • Installation
  • Security
  • Maintenance

Although the technical guides include topics that could be seen as developer-focused, there is some basic information that the end-user needs to learn about installing WordPress and working with their hosting companies, as well as maintaining a healthy and secured site.

Support guides

Support guides is the third category, also includes 3 subcategories:

  • The dashboard
  • Publishing
  • Media

These guides are all about the software, getting to know the moving parts of the front end, how to manage and publish content and media. The guides include articles for Classic Editor as well as the BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor.

Customization

This is the fourth category and as the titles says, it is all about giving the site or blog the look and feel that the user wants. The number of subcategories increased to 9 and this will help with categorization as the FSE features and new blocks are developed.

  • Appearance
  • Default themes
  • Block Editor
  • Media blocks
  • Text blocks
  • Design blocks
  • Embed blocks
  • Theme blocks
  • WidgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. blocks

Related tickets

Because there are many moving parts on the site map, everything has been documented in tickets in the documentation issue tracker repository in GH

190Merge articles
192Change article title
373Delete articles from HH
388Move from HH to DH
425Content review duplicated article? Dimension Controls Overview
426FAQ’s content review
427Content review Finding WP Help
429Content review How WP processes post content
430Content review Creating a Search page
442Content review New to WordPress – Where to Start
443Content review Introduction to Blogging
458Content review Comments in WP
469Content review Video shortcodeShortcode A shortcode is a placeholder used within a WordPress post, page, or widget to insert a form or function generated by a plugin in a specific location on your site.
470Content review Weblog client
471Content review WP feeds
473Content review duplicate: WP.org vs WP. com
Tech partsInventory of Technical Parts From End User Docs

Next steps

The #docs team will collaborate with other teams to find the best way to make all the changes. So far, the hosting team is collaborating in moving articles to DevHub.

  • Create new categories and subcategories
  • Change title names to articles and create 301s for older URLs (with the metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. team’s direction)
  • Merge pages and create 301’s
  • Delete pages and redirect to similar content pages/articles.

Other articles written as part of the redesign of HelpHub

Contributions

If you are interested in making any content review on any of the tickets above, reach out to @estelaris on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. or leave a comment in the GH ticket.

Props to @femkreations for reviewing the many opened tickets. @milana_cap and @kenshino for reviewing the content. @jonoaldersonwp for providing SEO recommendations.

#helphub

Estela Rueda 5:52 pm on March 7, 2022
Tags: ,   

First review on the new Sitemap for HelpHub

Following up on the post Explorations of a new classification for user documentation, we suggested to create 4 pillars (categories) and subcategories. My suggestion is to keep the subcategories to the minimum and add as many articles as needed, this will allow the system to grow as needed.

The 4 pillars in HelpHub

The 4 suggested pillars with their own subcategories are:

  1. WP Overview
    • About WordPress
    • Resources
    • FAQs
  2. Technical guides
    • WordPress installation
    • WordPress multisites
    • Configuration
    • Maintenance
    • Security
    • Troubleshooting
  3. Support guides
    • Get to know the dashboard
    • Publishing
    • Media
  4. Customization
    • Appearance
    • Default themes
    • Classic Editor
    • BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor
    • Common Blocks
    • Formatting
    • Layout elements
    • Theme Blocks
    • Widgets
    • Embeds

What has been done

During Google Season of Docs 2020, there was a project to reclassify all the articles, change article titles to follow the new style guide being written at the time and review the content (including links, outdated content, etc).

These are some of title changes given and the team will discuss the next steps to either change the affected URLs or not, but that is for another post.

Due to the rotation of contributors and the team focusing on other issues, the revision of content is still ongoing. If you would like to help out, join a meeting or reach out to @femkreations on WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/, @Femy on Slack and she will guide you.

The new titles and the reclassification has been done. We will continue to include articles that are still to be written, as well as any new article.

The first draft

This is a first draft of the Sitemap and we need your help to make sure articles are in the correct categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. or if there is anything else we need to add. You can leave your comments on this post or in the Draft of the Sitemap linked above.

What is up for review

  • Category names
  • Subcategory names
  • Articles classified in the correct category/subcategory

What is not for review

  • The four pillars (the title yes, but we won’t be adding anymore pillars)
  • Order of articles under categories nor order of subcategories (we will review them at a later time)
  • New name titles for articles (these were given during GSoD and have been already reviewed and accepted/rejected by the #docs team)

Other articles written as part of the redesign of HelpHub

If you would like to contribute or have any questions, reach out to @estelaris on Slack or leave a comment.

Props to @milana_cap for peer review.

#helphub