07 May 2012, 3:53

Hello,

Some of you might know that Mahara 1.4 and Mahara 1.5 have an update user manual at http://manual.mahara.org

As Mahara 1.5 is now the latest stable release, the focus is on that version. Some translators have already started on the process of getting this manual translated (cf. https://translations.launchpad.net/mahara-manual/1.5/ ). You can blame me for being too wordy.

There is also a bug tracker just for the manual as well as Q&A and a downloadable version. Though I suggest you go to the above URL for the most up-to-date version in English.

With the start of the translations, which is fantastic, we also needed to look into the screenshots and their translations. We are almost done with getting Sphinx do what we want it to do and that is create the documentation including screenshots in the translated languages. What we now need are the screenshots and also our new server where we want to install this as Read the Docs does not yet support translations. We hope to be able to update you later this month on the server.

Translators can already get started on the screenshots though. I hereby nudge Iñaki to tell us about the script that he adapted to get the callouts, i.e. the numbers into the circles in an easy way no matter which operating system you are on. I don't want to steal his thunder and great idea.

If you want to contribute to the translations of the Mahara user manual and are already a Mahara translator, you should have easy access and be able to create your own language translation if it hasn't already been started.

Cheers

Kristina

13 May 2012, 15:44

Hello,

sorry for the late reply. Last week has been a roller coaster for me, including a nice pharyngitis that nocked me out for a couple of days . But now I'm back

I have setup a public page with all the details about the script to get the callouts, including a video showing how to use it. As the page says, make sure you turn captions on while watching the video, as the subtitles explain what's going on (the pharyngitis prevented me from recording something understandable at all).

If you have any trouble, o want to tweak the script for any other purpose (i.e., change circle colour, size, font type, etc.) just give me a shout!

Saludos.

Iñaki.

13 May 2012, 19:13

Hello Iñaki,

Oh no. Great to read that you are on the mend. Thanks for posting the details about the script as well as the instructional video. That is great.

One thing I would add is that translators should also save the original Gimp file, not just the merged layers to make future updates easier. Right now (in the 1.4 and 1.5 manuals, I didn't work with this script and thus only have the png files. For 1.6 I will work with the script to make the callouts the same as the translators. Thus, if someone already starts in Gimp and saves the original files, it might make it easier also for others to place the callouts on the page.

Cheers

Kristina

15 May 2012, 4:01

Hi everybody,

I understand that you want to take screenshots and label them with a series of numbers, isn't it?

I use a piece of software very simple but hihgly eficient. It's Shutter (http://shutter-project.org/) an open source (GPL v3 license) aplication that not only take screenshots but also highligth with arrows, cercles, wrtite serial numbers and so on. It comes with Ubuntu and it's very easy to leanr and use.

Regards.

15 May 2012, 5:45

Hello Joan,

That's the one I have been using for the 1.4 and 1.5 manuals. However, not every translator has an Ubuntu computer / virtual machine. Hence, Iñaki was looking for an alternative that would also work on Mac and Windows.

Cheers

Kristina

21 October 2012, 11:36

Hi Kristina,

I missed this completly  - just stumbled on the https://translations.launchpad.net/mahara-manual page and found out I'm maintainer as well :-) - ok, I'll get on with it.

Few questions:

• I notice there are quite a few strings the same as in the lang pack. I assume there isn't a way to magically approve them all?
• On manual.mahara.org I notice only Englisch an French, while German is eg complete accouding to launchpad. How does a complete (or incomlete) manual show up there? or do I mis something obvious?

Kind regards

Koen

22 October 2012, 1:10

Hello Koen,

Translating the manual is not a must. It is separate from the software. However, translating it would be a great thing.

We will be putting up the Mahara 1.6 lang files soon.

The flags only show up on the manual manually. German isn't there yet because we are waiting for the translated screnshots which the team wanted to put in before releaseing the 1.5 German manual. Japanese isn't pulled in either yet as Mits wanted to get more done before being listed. If you want your translated listed, no matter which state of translatedness, please let us know and we can add it.

We are going to set up the manual so that it pulls in the translations automatically from Launchpad. A few things need to be ironed out for that to happen though.

If you also want to translate the screenshots, it's best to get the original files from Gitorious as you can then see in which folder they are. Here's the link to the source tree for 1.6: https://gitorious.org/mahara/manual/trees/1.6_STABLE/source (the files which you can adapt are in "images_originals" and the final png files are in "images"). The files in "images_originals" are Gimp files with the callouts on separate layers for moving around and hopefully saving them a bit more efficiently.

Please note: I have not yet updated all images with callouts when the content hasn't changed. Further, images that did not need callouts went straight into "images".

Hope that answers a few of your questions.

Cheers

Kristina

22 October 2012, 2:54

Thanks a lot for your updates Kristina and I'm sorry for my confusion.

I need a manual for my teachers anyway. I have something, but I prefer to translate and follow up the official manual. That way other Dutch users can grab it too (and cooperate ;-) )

I prefer the Dutch manual to be online as soon as you get automatic pulls from launchpad working. I like to release early and often, hoping to attract and motivate some help and keeping in mind that perfection is not of this world :-).

I think for now I will skip the pictures, but thanks for the link to the source tree. It is a problem at the moment to get an English free Mahara on screen because bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/1043526

Cheers

Koen

22 October 2012, 3:46

Hello Koen,

Thank you very much for wanting to translate the manual. It's a big job and you can truely say you've written a book once you are done. ;-)

We haven't lost track of the bug you reported. It is on the ToDo list and now with the release of 1.6 (and the previous security releases) out of the way moved up on the priority list.

I'll ask Melissa to prepare everything so that the Dutch translation can flow into the manual.

Also if you have content items that should be in the manual or examples for individual functionalities to illustrate them better, please let me know (or post it on the user manual tracker). For example, we didn't have a glossary until a few weeks ago, but Ralf made his German one available that I translated into English and 1.6 will sport it. It doesn't always have to flow from English to other languages, but can also go the other way around. :-)

Cheers

Kristina

24 October 2012, 1:53

Hello Kristina,

can you please check the data in launchpad.

The language translation status shows 633 untranslated strings for German and French. If you click on the link to untranslated strings you'll find only 25 untranslated strings.

Ralf