We had a meeting about formatting, style, and other general handbook stuff.

In attendance: Me, Japh Thomson, Aaron Osteraas, Tom McFarlin, Ryan Imel, Curtis McHale, Bradley Jones, Chris Reynolds, Dougal Campbell (briefly), all the randoms on Google Plus who felt like dropping by.

I’m afraid that I didn’t manage to record it. But here’s what we discussed:

1. Review of the schema
Consensus was that it looks good.

2. Review of current WordPress writing tips
We’re happy with these and I’ll make a copy of them for the docs blog.

3. Tone and voice
We agreed that a consistent tone of voice would be good throughout. This is a discussion to have between content people like me and any branding/marketing people who would like to get involved. At the minute WordPress does have a style and tone but there’s nothing written down.

4. Formatting
Formatting is good. We’d like some styles that can be applied to call-out boxes within the text. For the following:

• Info
• Tip
• Important

5. Tools

Tools we would like to use:

• Syntax Highlighter Evolved
• Edit Flow

Since there are about 45 people involved, it would be useful to have a P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. for this project. If not on .org I’ll set one up on .com

We acknowledged that there could be issues with code snippets and moving back and forth between the visual and text editors. Therefore we thought about turning off the visual editor.

We also discussed looking at https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-markdown/

6. Workflow
I provided an overview of the workflow and schedule. Everyone seemed happy enough with this. We agreed that we should have staged deadlines throughout the project. I will post about this later in the week.

7. Other issues

Duplicate content
We acknowledged that there could be issues with duplicate content. We discussed the possibility of delivering generic content with using an ajax link, however this would mean that content would have to be generic. In the end we decided to aim for a better reading experience for the user, rather than making content too generic. However, we should be aware of when content might be duplicated elsewhere and tag it as so.

Also, if content is similar – such as setting up SVNSVN Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN, after its command name svn) is a software versioning and revision control system. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS). WordPress core and the wordpress.org released code are all centrally managed through SVN. https://subversion.apache.org/. for plugins/themes/coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., then if it is written in one place it can be used as the base for articles elsewhere.

Design

We would like to have a lovely design for the handbooks. The layout and formatting should be the same for each handbook, but each one should be its own colour.

Expect an update about workflow and schedule later this week.

#handbooks

Do you love to worry about oxford commas? Do you care about whether you write in the first, second, or third person? Do formatting considerations keep you up at night? Then this is your opportunity to get your voice heard!

It would be great to achieve consistency across the handbooks, so I’d like to have a discussion about content style and formatting. As a result, we will have a style guide. The style guide is something that I hope that writers will be aware of, but it will be particularly important for editors and proofreaders, so if you do want to work on editing any of the manuals, or want to proofread, please do come along. Also, anyone else who is interested is more than welcome.

Let’s do this in a Google Hangout.

Tuesday 11th December @ 2100 UTC (that’s 9pm London) – here’s the time everywhere else.

You can find me on G+

Agenda

1. Review of the schema:
I’d just like to make sure everyone is happy with it and it is fit for purpose.

2. Review of current WordPress Codex writing tips:
Are they suitable for the handbooks and shall we generate a style guide from them?

3. Tone and voice

4. Formatting

heading usage, screenshots, use of bold, call-out boxes

5. Assessment of any additional tools needed
Syntax highlighter etc

6. Brief discussion of workflow
I’m going to write a post up about this – the idea will be to get started with actual content creation in the New Year. But I’d love to discuss some ideas with you guys. If necessary we can schedule another chat about it.

At some point I’d also like to have some 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) guidelines drawn up. For example, the best way to make use of alt tags, and making sure we create a structure that’s accessible.

If there’s anything else that needs discussed, please add it to the comments.

[update: yes – I did originally title the post “pendants of WordPress unite”. This is why we need people like you!]

#handbooks