Wikihelp/Help Wiki/Online Help/etc... needs one clear name

l10n
#1

[Sophie suggested that I ping this list regarding the Wiki Help...]

Hi all,

I've been doing some QA prep work for our upcoming Bugzilla migration
and I've noticed that we have a few different names for the same
online help/wiki resource, and that's confusing. I suggest that we
pick one name and standardize on it everywhere.

Here are a sampling of some of the names and examples of their use:

=> Wikhelp/WIKIHELP

This one is used on the wiki and in the bugtracker:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/Wikihelp
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/Bugzilla/Components/Documentation/Extended_Help

=> Wiki Help

This one is in the Template:Menu on the wiki:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Template:Menu

=> The Help Wiki

Mentioned in the blurb for the 'Documentation' component in Bugzilla:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=LibreOffice&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&component=Documentation

=> Online Help

This name is given on the wiki, alongside "Wikihelp":
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Website/Web_Sites_services

=> LibreOffice Help

The menu option in LibreOffice itself (Help -> LibreOffice Help).

The help site itself (main page) in the form "LibreOffice Help" and
"Welcome to LibreOffice Help!"

=> LibreOffice Application Help

This help site itself (main page) - "Thank you for using the
LibreOffice application help"

#2

Hi,

"online help" refers to built-in help and the term is not very telling.
Technically speaking I would think more of something like "embedded" or
"included" or whatever the proper English word might be. "local" is very
strange, especially if one day LO will become also a webservice. It will
not be "local" but it will be part of the package, "embedded"; if it won't
be there, there will probably be linking to the wiki, I guess.
"internal"/"external"?

Lp, m.

#3

I think that the dichotomy between local (included, embedded,
built-in, offline, internal) help and online (remote, external) help
is mostly clear to the users, although perhaps we could choose those
words more carefully.

I would like to see a unique name for this online/offline assistance
beyond just "Help". I'd recommend a name that we can use to brand this
resource so that users will identify it whether it's built-in to
LibreOffice or whether it's being accessed online -- something like
"Help Pages", "QuickHelp", "LibreHelp", or etc...

Cheers,
--R

#4

I am looking at it from l10n perspective. "Online help" in most languages
means help online, on the web. While it is actually meant as
embedded/"inline"/offline help. So I just hope all translators translated
it properly. So maybe English names for it should be chosen carefully also
for non-native English speakers.

Lp, m.

#5

Yes, I agree completely that the name should try to avoid confusion in
other languages.

Perhaps it would be more clear if we treat the name as a proper noun,
the way we do with 'LibreOffice', and not translate it. So
"LibreOffice QuickHelp is available online or as a downloadable
add-on" would become (in my very poor French) "On se trouve <<
LibreOffice QuickHelp >> en ligne ou on peut le telecharger".

Cheers,
--R

#6

Hi Robinson, all,

I am looking at it from l10n perspective. "Online help" in most languages
means help online, on the web. While it is actually meant as
embedded/"inline"/offline help. So I just hope all translators translated it
properly. So maybe English names for it should be chosen carefully also for
non-native English speakers.

Yes, I agree completely that the name should try to avoid confusion in
other languages.

Perhaps it would be more clear if we treat the name as a proper noun,
the way we do with 'LibreOffice', and not translate it. So
"LibreOffice QuickHelp is available online or as a downloadable
add-on" would become (in my very poor French) "On se trouve <<
LibreOffice QuickHelp >> en ligne ou on peut le telecharger".

I'm afraid that won't work, users will takes it as an obscure extension
they don't even understand the name :wink:
I like Martin proposal for 'internal/external', this is referring to the
same thing while one embedded and one in another place.
Others, what's your idea?
Kind regards
Sophie

#7

Hi :slight_smile:
I like combining parts of those last 2 ideas but i'm not sure if it
would work. Is the idea of "Quick Help" easy to translate into French
or anything else?
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#8

Today wiki or embedded help are both quick (unless one uses a phone line
and a modem for Internet access) and contain same information, so naming
one Quick would really not help differentiating them, I guess.

Lp, m.

#9

Hi Martin,

I think Tom's suggestion was that we use the term "QuickHelp"
(localized) to refer to the content, and use terms like
"internal"/"external" to refer to their location vis-a-vis the user's
system.

e.g.
If I access the QuickHelp locally on my (en-US) system, it would be
branded/referred to as "Internal QuickHelp". If I access it online, it
would be "External QuickHelp".

If Sophie access the QuickHelp locally on her FR system, it could be
branded/referred to as "AideRapide Interne", and online as AideRapide
Externe".

Cheers,
--R

#10

Ok, got it. But Quick is really not necessary, isn't "LibreOffice Help" or
just "Help" (where Help gets localized) enough?
Branding something with a very special name that should be a part of every
serious office suite is strange.
Next we will rebrand "dialogs" with "NiceDialogs" and "context menus" with
"HelpfulContextMenus"?

Lp, m.

#11

Hi all,

Ok, got it. But Quick is really not necessary, isn't "LibreOffice Help"

or just "Help" (where Help gets localized) enough?
+1

Branding something with a very special name that should be a part of

every serious office suite is strange.

Next we will rebrand "dialogs" with "NiceDialogs" and "context menus"

with "HelpfulContextMenus"?
lol!
Sophie
GSM

#12

Ok, got it. But Quick is really not necessary, isn't "LibreOffice Help" or
just "Help" (where Help gets localized) enough?

Personally, I think the term "Help" or "LibreOffice Help" is
ambiguous. I wish there were a term for
those-help-files-included-in-an-application, but I don't think one
exists :slight_smile:

I think the reason that we've referred to this particular resource
using so many different terms (per my original email) is *precisely*
because the term 'Help' is so generic. People don't want to leave it
naked, and so try to add descriptive terms to it in order to inform
the user and guide him to the proper content.

Branding something with a very special name that should be a part of every
serious office suite is strange.
Next we will rebrand "dialogs" with "NiceDialogs" and "context menus" with
"HelpfulContextMenus"?

The terms "dialog" and "context menu" are extremely unambiguous in the
context of LibreOffice. The term "help" is used all over the place --
we even have a jumping-off page called "get-help":
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help

--R

#13

:

> Ok, got it. But Quick is really not necessary, isn't "LibreOffice Help"

or

> just "Help" (where Help gets localized) enough?

Personally, I think the term "Help" or "LibreOffice Help" is
ambiguous. I wish there were a term for
those-help-files-included-in-an-application, but I don't think one
exists :slight_smile:

I think the reason that we've referred to this particular resource
using so many different terms (per my original email) is *precisely*
because the term 'Help' is so generic. People don't want to leave it
naked, and so try to add descriptive terms to it in order to inform
the user and guide him to the proper content.

There use to be some non ambiguous terms:
help for help files
support for support
guides, how-to, faq... for documentation
This is still the used terms for a lot of users whatever the localization.
Why not fit to that?

> Branding something with a very special name that should be a part of

every

> serious office suite is strange.
> Next we will rebrand "dialogs" with "NiceDialogs" and "context menus"

with

> "HelpfulContextMenus"?

The terms "dialog" and "context menu" are extremely unambiguous in the
context of LibreOffice. The term "help" is used all over the place --
we even have a jumping-off page called "get-help":
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help

Which would be /get-support
I don't want to minimize what the help files are, I know several countries
without connection where it's the only documentation, for other countries,
these files are the only legal documentation we can provide. For most of
the users 'help' is understood as the help files shipping with the product.
I won't change that but the other terms we use on the site, etc...
Kind regards
Sophie

#14

There use to be some non ambiguous terms:
help for help files
support for support
guides, how-to, faq... for documentation
This is still the used terms for a lot of users whatever the localization.
Why not fit to that?

+1

My big focus is standardization. I just want to have one consistent
name across the board.

... The term "help" is used all over the place --
we even have a jumping-off page called "get-help":
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help

Which would be /get-support
I don't want to minimize what the help files are, I know several countries
without connection where it's the only documentation, for other countries,
these files are the only legal documentation we can provide. For most of the
users 'help' is understood as the help files shipping with the product. I
won't change that but the other terms we use on the site, etc...

Yep, sounds good to me :slight_smile:

--R

#15

Hi :slight_smile:
+1
I think we are all aiming at unambiguous, consistent terms. Sophie's
3 suggestions and their separation seem to achieve the objective. Can
we stick with that?

I think the confusion arises because the help is also available as a
wiki but even so it might be best to avoid calling that "the wiki" and
maybe use something like "the help wiki"(?) instead. I don't really
have a good suggestion for it and haven't thought about it much.
Hopefully someone gives an idea that we all think is obvious after
they have suggested it.

Btw thanks Robinson for realising what i meant and putting it so much
more clearly. I hadn't got as far as thinking about internal/external
and i think those terms are unclear anyway. Like the "local" it can
easily get confusing, for example in ssh hopping the one i'm thinking
of as local might be a remote machine.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile: