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-   -   The "let's improve the OOTP manual" thread (https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com//showthread.php?t=239063)

BradC 12-15-2013 02:42 PM

The "let's improve the OOTP manual" thread
 
Hello OOTP Citizens:

I now have access to edit the OOTP 14 manual. I have some manual writing experience for Nuance and Freeverse, along with some related experience for Apple, so I said I'd jump in and help improve the manual where I could.

I know I've seen comments along the lines of "This isn't documented properly in the manual," or "This should be in the manual," so I'd like to use this thread for everyone to post what they'd like to see in the manual. What do we need to add? What do we need to change?

I realize there's probably a lot of work to be done here, but if I start with the big stuff and do what I can here and there in between my other duties, maybe we can whip this into shape in time for OOTP 15.

Thanks!

- Brad

RchW 12-15-2013 03:00 PM

Would you be able to take submissions in typical word processing formats ie Microsoft Office and put them in the manual? If you can, I may be able to help out. I have considerable experience writing technical documentation, specifications, work instructions etc.

joefromchicago 12-15-2013 03:57 PM

One obvious place to start is the manual's section on storylines, the entire content of which is "no content yet."

Winnipeg59 12-15-2013 06:38 PM

Great Idea.

Might I suggest a look at both the Pitching Staff and Lineups pages. They no longer relate to 14 with the improvements over previous versions.

And, now that you've asked, I'll have a look for other items. Good luck with the project.

Infinity 12-16-2013 02:20 AM

Wiki?
 
Have you considered making the manual a wiki? That way established members of the community could help edit the manual to make sure things that aren't covered are.

The Wolf 12-16-2013 02:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Infinity (Post 3615094)
Have you considered making the manual a wiki? That way established members of the community could help edit the manual to make sure things that aren't covered are.

We tried a wiki.

/fail

My two bits: ask here and in the newbie forum what people have the most trouble understanding in the game and do those first. It makes more sense to me than updating stuff that's intuitive.

Andreas Raht 12-16-2013 04:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RchW (Post 3614895)
Would you be able to take submissions in typical word processing formats ie Microsoft Office and put them in the manual? If you can, I may be able to help out. I have considerable experience writing technical documentation, specifications, work instructions etc.

The online manual is saved in a database which also serves as the source for the in-game manual, which is displayed in OOTP 14 with the in-game "browser". This browser only understands very basic HTML so the online manual should only use the most basic HTML tags.

You can write new manual pages in MS Word. But they would have to be converted into HTML. MS Word uses special characters for quotation marks and dashes which would need to be converted. If I would have to do it, I would copy the whole text from MS Word into an editor like notepad.exe. Then I would manually insert br tags for every line break and all the other tags. Tables are some extra work.
It's doable, but obviously it would be much better to write HTML code instead of using MS Word. To see which HTML tags we're using for the manual pages, open them in the browser and use the "View page source code" feature of the browser.
This is a list of the tags:
h5 for head lines
a for links
table, tr, td for tables
p for paragraphs. Do not use div!
b for bold and i for italic
ol, ul, li for lists
img for images

Thanks for any help! It's much appreciated :thumbup1:

Honorable_Pawn 12-16-2013 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Wolf (Post 3615099)
My two bits: ask here and in the newbie forum what people have the most trouble understanding in the game and do those first. It makes more sense to me than updating stuff that's intuitive.

this

buffalo_pete 12-17-2013 06:09 PM

I also have some documentation experience and am happy to help out. One thing that immediately springs to mind is how dated a lot of the screenshots are. I can go through it over the holidays and make a list of screenshots that need updating.

Déjà Bru 12-17-2013 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BradC (Post 3614883)
I know I've seen comments along the lines of "This isn't documented properly in the manual," or "This should be in the manual," so I'd like to use this thread for everyone to post what they'd like to see in the manual. What do we need to add? What do we need to change?

Brad, you may have found them already but I wonder if you might get some pointers from these three threads (the last one I include only because I talked a lot in it ;)):

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...al-thread.html (I believe this thread is still somewhat to mostly accurate in its observations)

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ed-manual.html

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...pleteness.html

Also, please see this post from a well-meaning soul whose ambitious thread unfortunately devolved into stuff and nonsense; he mentions three blank pages in the online manual:

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...57-post41.html

Andreas Raht 12-18-2013 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buffalo_pete (Post 3615939)
I also have some documentation experience and am happy to help out. One thing that immediately springs to mind is how dated a lot of the screenshots are. I can go through it over the holidays and make a list of screenshots that need updating.

Thanks! That would be great. If you make screenshots, please keep the dimension and the file name (which is case-sensitive). You could upload them as a ZIP archive to our support FTP file space. Please send me an email with the name of the archive.

buffalo_pete 12-18-2013 06:06 PM

Will do!

USF 01-03-2014 10:38 PM

This is great news! My recommendation for OOTP 15 was to have a more thorough game manual. Thanks for making the game even better!

Jason
ABL Commissioner
ADULT BASEBALL LEAGUE :: ADULT BASEBALL LEAGUE

Bottom Of The Sixth 01-04-2014 07:28 PM

I am not sure how many other OOTP members would agree with this idea however, I think it would be great if OOTP created and published a PDF version of the game manual.

If my memory serves me correctly a PDF game manual has not been available since OOTP9 and alot has changed since then.

I feel that a updated PDF manual would make a real nice asset to this series since currently the only way to view the manual is for a game owner to be connected to the internet.

Déjà Bru 01-04-2014 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bottom Of The Sixth (Post 3622990)
I am not sure how many other OOTP members would agree with this idea however, I think it would be great if OOTP created and published a PDF version of the game manual.

If my memory serves me correctly a PDF game manual has not been available since OOTP9 and alot has changed since then.

I feel that a updated PDF manual would make a real nice asset to this series since currently the only way to view the manual is for a game owner to be connected to the internet.

This would be nice but I don't think we will see it. Reason being, if we are waiting this long for certain parts of the online manual to be created or updated, imagine the prospects of having to then turn all of those html pages into a PDF document. If the online manual were consistently up-to-date, then I think PDF would be a possibility. Not under present circumstances.

Andreas Raht 01-06-2014 04:31 AM

If we had a tool which would convert hundreds of HTML pages into a PDF file, we would do it. I made two attempts to convert the HTML pages into PDF and tried several both free and commercial tools, but I was not able to automate the process :(
I could add a feature to the online manual database which generates a single HTML page containing the whole manual in the right order of pages. All the headlines are structured using h2, h3, h4 (and so on) tags, so a tool could easily generate an index with links to the sections...

Déjà Bru 01-06-2014 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht (Post 3623573)
If we had a tool which would convert hundreds of HTML pages into a PDF file, we would do it. I made two attempts to convert the HTML pages into PDF and tried several both free and commercial tools, but I was not able to automate the process :(

Having had similar experience, I knew this was the answer.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht (Post 3623573)
I could add a feature to the online manual database which generates a single HTML page containing the whole manual in the right order of pages. All the headlines are structured using h2, h3, h4 (and so on) tags, so a tool could easily generate an index with links to the sections...

So, why not? The hyperlinks to pages might be lost, OR perhaps they would link back to the online pages instead of those within the document. What else? It would be searchable and printable, at least.
Quote:

Originally Posted by 7RogerMaris7 (Post 3623727)
I'm new to OOTP, so please bear with me. I would like to see a printable manual, and one that is also downloadable to an e reader (Kindle as well as Nook)! Either way it would allow me to access information on my desktop while I'm enjoying the game.

Well, we are talking about a PDF version, at least, as you can see from the above.

BaseballMan 01-06-2014 08:37 PM

I agree with updating the manual. It does need updating. I would offer to help but i havent got around to actually reading it yet. :)

Déjà Bru 01-26-2014 08:25 PM

Now is the time to move ahead on this project because OOTPB 15 has been announced with even more features to be documented. We don't want to fall too far behind.

Carlton 01-27-2014 11:23 AM

We need to make sure the SCOUTING area shows what other other options need to be chosen in order for it to work effectively.

One thing I stumbled upon is you need to click create and maintain hidden players so your scout has something to go out and look for


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