Need Suggestions for the Help Manual

[gold_finger]

Hi Everyone,

We're looking for ways to improve the Help Manual and would really appreciate your input.  Consider this a kind of free-for-all general brainstorming session.  At this point, any ideas that you think will make the manual better/(more useful) are welcome.  Only real caveat is for you to try limiting suggestions to things that would likely benefit a fair number of people.  (In other words, try to steer clear of topics that would only be of interest to 1 in 100 people.)

Any particular topics that you wish were in the manual but are not right now?

Anything in it already that you think could use further/better explanation?

If you think back to when you first started using Linux (any distro), what are some of the things that were most confusing and that you wish you had good information on from the beginning?

If you have used the help manual to try finding an answer to something, was it easy to find what you were looking for?  Or was it a bit confusing figuring out exactly where to look?

Any suggestions for improving the overall layout of the manual, possibly making it easier to find what you are looking for when using it?

Once we've got a good amount of feedback, we'll go from there and possibly put up a poll for you cast votes for the suggestions you think are most important to start with adding to the manual.

Thanks.

[Scott(0)]

A "Quick Start" index (like some technical books have at the beginning of a book) to help beginners get off to a quick start by listing a short index of the most commonly asked questions.

[altman]

I would think of Files Permissions as some new to Linux have & Root Password , but it s not recommended to new people to Linux .

Not much could be done , I guess it s pretty good as itl is right now .

But ideas will come by as time goes by .

[anon222]

A "Quick Start" index (like some technical books have at the beginning of a book) to help beginners get off to a quick start by listing a short index of the most commonly asked questions.

I like this idea on Commonly asked questions.
As for the first page I think few lines of icons would be better for navigation in the manual.

[bitsnpcs]

Dictionary of terminology used in the manual, that new users will not be familiar with.
   

[banko]

Hello,

I'm a relative new comer to LL but not to Linux (no way an expert).

I've just read the manual for the first time and it is actually quite good.

When buying or using something new, the first thing I do is look on You Tube,
for xmas I bought 3 Tablets for my grandchildren and a cycle rack for my son and the You Tube videos where so much better than the instructions that came with the products.

So, just a suggestion, why not create an official You Tube channel, with various videos, especially installation guides, an area that confuses and puts new uses off.

Keith

[Wirezfree]

Hi gold_finger,

I think a couple of the challenges when you first start with LL(Linux),

1. Where do I start.?, The user manual, so this should be the key focus.
    Coming from Windows where for a user it was more or less switch it on, follow the install prompts/guide and away you go.

2. Then there is the terminology, already mentioned by bitsnpcs(good one),
    An A-Z of the most common "terms" and "commands" would be useful. So 2 new sections?
    > FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions, there could be links back to any already existing "How To's" in the Forum
    > CUC = Commonly Used Commands, These are the ones that people like yourself ask for on a regular basis.

3. I think there is already an enormous amount of information, answers and solutions within the forum...But
    If you are new and not familiar with LL(Linux), and maybe English is not your 1st language, deciding what to "search" for can be a challenge.

    This one is more a challenge, and potentially to much of a resource burden and drain on people like your good self...
    It needs the creations of some form indexed/reference knowledge section with just one liners, bit like a mini-wiki.
    See if I can explain,, Create a section, say "Common & Known Solutions and Answers"
    Break it into Key subject areas, Install , Software , Hardware and Configuration
    There would be sub categories under each of the main subject areas, These get added to when new subjects arise.
    Now each time a solution to an an issue/question is found, a one liner and link to the relevant post/source is added in the relevant category.
   
    Example of how it could work/look,, I'm having an issue with a Bluetooth Device,
    So I go and look in the Hardware > Bluetooth section
    I see some one liners, and something that sounds like my issue, and a link to click on, like this...
    Hardware
          Bluetooth
          One liner 1 + Link
          One liner 2 + Link
          Enabling Full Bluetooth Support in Linux Lite = https://www.freecinema2022.gq/forums/index...opic=558.0
          One liner 3 + Link

Just my thoughts...
Obviously, like I said, it would put a lot on the shoulders of the mods & devs, and maybe just to much of an ask..??
and like all knowledge systems they are are only as good as the content, and relevance = "Ongoing Maintenance"
Otherwise they become stale and out of date.

Dave

[gold_finger]

Lots of good suggestions!  Thanks to all who posted so far.

Going to leave this open for a few days at least (probably through the weekend) to give plenty of time for others to put in ideas and to give everyone a chance to add things that might come to mind after their initial posts.

[rokytnji]

Just to show what one member of our crew does

LINK

and we are a small but mighty team.

[gold_finger]

Hi rokytnji,

For some reason I get "this video doesn't exist" when I click it.  Did you post correct link, or do you think it got deleted?