ysobel: (Default)
masquerading as a man with a reason ([personal profile] ysobel) wrote in [site community profile] dw_styles2009-04-06 10:11 am
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Documentation questions!

Now that the styles overhaul is closer to complete, the styles documentation team, led by [personal profile] ysobel, is starting to write up documentation for various aspects of customization, ranging anywhere from basic ("I don't know HTML or CSS or S2 but I want my journal to be pretty, how do I do that?") to complicated ("I want to create a completely custom style, what all is S2 capable of?") and various points in between.

Obviously, this won't all be ready by open beta. However, since a lot of the documentation is being created from scratch anyway, we decided that it would be a good idea to get input from the people who will actually be using said documentation.

So. Please feel free to answer any of the following questions, or provide any other comments that might be useful! We don't promise that everything everyone suggests will be used, but we will listen to what you have to say.

...with one exception, and I probably don't have to make this explicit but am just in case: A lot of the people who are working on Dreamwidth styles and documentation were also involved with LiveJournal support and documentation. This isn't to say that you have to pretend that everything is perfect -- I will be the first to admit that LJ's S2 manual is (shall we say) less than ideal -- but please be respectful of the people on the other side of the screen. :)

(In other words: we want your feedback, because we want Dreamwidth to have Awesome Documentation [tm], but politeness is always appreciated.)

* What aspects of LiveJournal's styles-related documentation did you find particularly good or useful?

* What did you wish LiveJournal's styles-related documentation had? (particularly, what did you have to figure out for yourself, or ask someone else for?)

* What level of customization are you comfortable with, what would you like to be able to do, and what documentation could Dreamwidth provide to help with transitioning between the two?

* Are there (relevant) questions that you have? What (styles-related) things have you always wanted to know? What else do you want to tell us?
wistfuljane: chihiro from sprited away walking toward the train station in the river (in his own way)

[personal profile] wistfuljane 2009-04-09 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Having tinkered around with style customizations, I would suggest some other categories for styles: sidebar > left, right, bottom; available unique options > collapsible entries.

The customizations themselves. I'm using Zesty and I'm confused about some of the options under Text. Basically, anything after Title that goes in the HTML concerning comments and including the quoted option and this: Non-linked reply link text. %1 is replaced with the link. What do they do?

Also, note: I think the options to set # of journal entries under Miscellaneous repeats those under Basic Options?
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)

[staff profile] denise 2009-04-09 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Zesty was committed before it went through the cleanup by the Styles team, so it hasn't been standardized yet -- the options are rather obscure. (I actually don't even know what that means myself, heh.)


wistfuljane: chihiro from sprited away walking toward the train station in the river (Default)

[personal profile] wistfuljane 2009-04-09 10:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, okay. Hopefully, the options will make more sense once it has been standardized then. =)