Thank you for your interest in contributing to the In-Portal Documentation Project! We have prepared this guide on how you can help to get you started. If you haven’t done so, please register as a contributor and set your member status to a Contributor.
How to Contribute to Documentation
The best way to contribute to the In-Portal Documentation is by realizing and telling others that something is missing in the documentation. This often comes up when helping others or trying to find an answer or solution to a problem. If you look into the documentation (or refer others) and the chapter/description that you’d expect is not there, this means that there is room for improvement; we have some work to do!
The second part of the task is writing the missing documentation. If you don’t have the time or feel it is not your cup of tea, please at least let the User Manual or Developers Guide Teams know! Please don’t keep it to yourself – finding what’s missing is half the task and usually the best documentation is written by other users telling writers about what’s missing.
If you do have the time and willingness to help, please proceed with reading the rest of this guide:
Recommendations
In-Portal has two sets of documentation: User Manual (for end-users of the software) and Developers Guide (advanced users or programmers), each set requiring a slightly different set of technical skills. In order for our documentation to be clear and useful, it helps if you have solid English writing skills. Any previous experience working with manuals, or large documents is a plus, since it is important to know how to outline and structure lengthy documents to keep the documentation organized.
User Manual
The purpose of the In-Portal User Manual is to provide end-users of the software with documentation explaining basic functions of the software: from installation and configuration, to various sections of the Administrative Console, data management and simple customization tasks. User Manual is located at http://docs.in-portal.org and is powered by Wiki, making it easy for all members of the Community to keep it updated. Corresponding sections of the User Manual are also linked to from various sections of the In-Portal’s Administrative Console.
Writing or contributing to the User Manual requires good familiarity with the In-Portal Software, its functions and interfaces. User Manual Documentation is written and supported by the In-Portal User Documentation team.
Developers Guide
The purpose of the Developers Guide is to provide advanced users, web developers and programmers with documentations on how to expand, customize and improve the functionality and the code the In-Portal software: from inner-workings and the architecture of the code, to working with classes, objects, templates and more. Developers Manual is located at http://guide.in-portal.org and is also powered by Wiki, making it easy for all members of the Community to keep it updated
Writing or contributing to the Developers Guide requires some programming skills and also familiarity with the In-Portal’s code and structure as well as its functions and inner workings. Developers Guide is written and supported by the In-Portal Developers Guide Team.
How is it done?
In-Portal Documentation is written and maintained by volunteers through the Wiki Pages. This makes it easier for the Community members to contribute by making corrections, adjustments and additions.
Large portions of the documentation are normally originally written in publishing programs like Microsoft Word or Open Office (or other software with proofing, spelling and grammar check capabilities). They are then merged with our Wiki Pages.
Proofreading & Copy Editing
If you are not sure about writing documentation from scratch, you can also help by proofreading (fixing typos, improving language and grammar, etc.) as well as copy-editing (making the documentation more legible, improving formatting and structure, adding screenshots, etc.)
Translating into Other Languages
If you are interested in translating either documentation (User Manual or Developers Guide) into other languages, please contact User Documentation / Developers Guide Team AND Localization Team (as it requires efforts of both teams).
