]>

David Mason Red Hat, Inc.

dcm@redhat.com

Daniel Mueth

d-mueth@uchicago.edu

Alexander Kirillov

kirillov@math.sunysb.edu

This is a pre-release! 0.99 04.10.2000 2000 Red Hat, Inc., Daniel Mueth, and Alexander Kirillov Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. You may obtain a copy of the GNU Free Documentation License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to: Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. Many of the names used by companies to distinguish their products and services are claimed as trademarks. Where those names appear in any GNOME documentation, and those trademarks are made aware to the members of the GNOME Documentation Project, the names have been printed in caps or initial caps. The GNOME Documentation Project (GDP) aims to provide GNOME and GNOME applications with a complete, intuitive, and clear documentation system. At the center of the GDP is the GNOME Help Browser, which presents a unified interface to GNOME-specific documentation as well as other Linux documentation such as man pages and texinfo documents. The GNOME Help System provides a comprehensive view of documentation on a machine by dynamically assembling the documentation of GNOME applications and components which are installed. The GDP is responsible for writing numerous GNOME-related documents, both for developers and for users. Developer documentation includes APIs for the GNOME libraries, GNOME White Papers, GNOME developer tutorials, the GNOME Developer FAQ, the GNOME Developer's Website, and GNOME Handbook's, such as the one you are reading. User documentation include the GNOME User's Guide, the GNOME FAQ, and GNOME application documentation. Most GNOME applications have their own manual in addition to context sensitive help. Documenting GNOME and all the numerous GNOME applications is a very large project. The GDP is always looking for people to help write, update, and edit documentation. If you are interested in joining the GDP team, you should join the gnome-doc-list mailing list . Read , for help selecting a project to work on. Feel free to introduce yourself on the gnome-doc-list mailing list and indicate which project you intend to work on, or else ask for suggestions of important documents which need work done. You may also want to join the #docs IRC channel on irc.gnome.org to meet other GDP members and discuss any questions you may have. For a list of GDP projects and members, see the GDP Website. GNOME developers, packagers, and translators may not be writing GNOME documentation but will want to understand how the GNOME documentation system works and will need to collaborate with GDP members. This document should help to outline the structure of how the GNOME documentation system works. Developers who do not write the documentation for their applications are encouraged to find a GDP member to write the documentation. This is best done by sending an email to the gnome-doc-list mailing list describing the application, where it can be downloaded from, and that the developer(s) would like a GDP member to write documentation for the application. The #docs IRC channel on irc.gnome.org is another option for contacting GDP members. This Handbook uses the following notation: /usr/bin Directory foo.sgml Filename command Command or text that would be typed. replaceable "Variable" text that can be replaced. Program or Doc Code Program or document code This Handbook is a guide for both writing documentation for GNOME components and applications and for properly binding and packaging documentation into GNOME applications. This Handbook, like all GNOME documentation, was written in DocBook(SGML) and is available in several formats including SGML, HTML, PostScript, and PDF. For the latest version, see Getting The GNOME Handbook of Writing Software Documentation . Alternately, one may download it anonymously from GNOME CVS under gnome-docu/gdp. The most frequently asked question of new contributors who join the GDP is "which document should I start with?". Because most people involved are volunteers, we do not assign projects and applications to write documents for. The first step is all yours - you must decide what about GNOME interests you most and find out if it has complete documents or not. It is also important to spend some time with GNOME to make sure you are familiar enough with it to be authoritative in your writing. The best way to do this is to just sit down and play with GNOME as much as possible before starting to write. The easiest way to get started is to improve existing documentation. If you notice some inaccuracies or omissions in the documentation, or you think that you can explain the material more clearly, just send your suggestions to the author of the original documentation or to the GNOME documentation project at docs@gnome.org. The GDP Documentation Status Table (DocTable) (http://www.gnome.org/gdp/doctable/) is a web page which tracks the status of all the various documentation components of GNOME. These components include application documentation, internal GNOME component documentation, user documentation, and developer documentation. For each documentation item, it tracks the current status of the documentation, who is working on the particular document, where the documentation can be found, and provides a forum for the discussion of each item. You should use the DocTable to help you select a documentation item which needs work done. Once you have selected an item to work on, please register yourself as an author so that other authors do not duplicate your work and may contact you to help or offer suggestions. Also be sure to keep the status icons up-to-date so that the GDP team can easily identify which items need additional help. The DocTable also allows people to make announcements and suggestions and to discuss issues in the comments section. Note that the information in the DocTable may not always be up-to-date or accurate. When you assign yourself to documenting an application, make sure you find out the latest status of documentation by contacting the application author. All documentation for the GNOME project is written in SGML using the DocBook DTD. There are many advantages to using this for documentation, not least of which is the single source nature of SGML. To contribute to the GDP you should learn to use DocBook. To get started writing for the GDP you do not need to rush out and learn DocBook - if you feel it is too much to handle for now, you can submit plain ASCII text to the gnome-doc-list mailing list and a volunteer will mark it up for you. Seeing your document marked up will also be a great way for you to start learning DocBook. Download and install the following DocBook Tools packages: jade, docbook, jadetex, sgml-common, and stylesheets. (RPM users should note that jade is platform dependent (eg. i386), while the other packages are in the noarch directory.) You can find more information on DocBook Tools here. If you are an Emacs user you may want to grab the psgml package as well. This is a major mode for editing sgml files in Emacs. The GDP uses its own DocBook stylesheets. To use the GDP stylesheets, you should download the file gdp-both.dsl from the gnome-docu/gdp/dsssl module in CVS (or from GDP Custom DSSSL Stylesheet)and copy it over the file /usr/lib/sgml/stylesheets/cygnus-both.dsl. Alternately, you can download and install the gnome-doc-tools package which will set up the stylesheets as well as the DTD discussed below. Due to some license issues involved with the creation of gifs, the GNOME Documentation Project has decided to use the PNG image format for all images in GNOME documentation. You can read more about the issues involved with gifs at http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gif.html. The current DocBook DTD(3.1) does not include support for embedding PNG images in your documents. Since the GDP uses many screenshots in its documentation, we use our own variation on the DocBook DTD which has PNG image support. We encourage everybody to use this DTD instead of the default DocBook DTD since your source document header and your output document appearance subtly vary between the two DTD's. To install the GDP custom DTD with PNG image support by hand: Download the GDP DocBook DTD for PNG support and install it where you keep your DTD's. (On Red Hat use /usr/lib/sgml/.) Note that the 3.0 DTD is missing support for the <legalnotice> tag, so it is recommended that you use version 3.1 Add the new DTD to your SGML CATALOG file. The location of your SGML CATALOG file may vary depending upon your distribution. (On Red Hat it is usually in /usr/lib/sgml/CATALOG.) Add the following line to this file: PUBLIC "-//GNOME//DTD DocBook PNG Variant V1.0//EN" "png-support-3.0.dtd" If you are using the 3.1 DTD, use: PUBLIC "-//GNOME//DTD DocBook PNG Variant V1.1//EN" "png-support-3.1.dtd" Alternately, you can download and install the gnome-doc-tools package which will set up the custom stylesheets and DTD for you. To include PNG files in your documents, you will need to indicate that you are using this special DTD. To do this, use the following headers: Articles: ]]> Books: ]]> There are many editors on Linux and UNIX systems available to you. Which editor you use to work on the sgml documents is completely up to you, as long as the editor is able to preserve sgml and produce the source in a format that is readable by everyone. Probably the two most popular editors available are Emacs and vi. These and other editors are used regularly by members of the GDP. Emacs has a major mode, psgml, for editing sgml files which can save you time and effort in adding and closing tags. You will find the psgml package in DocBook Tools, which is the standard set of tools for the GDP. You may find out more about DocBook Tools in . The tools available in DocBook Tools allow you to convert your sgml document to many different formats including html and Postscript. The primary tool used to do the conversion is an application called Jade. In most cases you will not have to work directly with Jade; Instead, you will use the scripts provided by DocBook Tools. To preview your DocBook document, it is easiest to convert it to html. If you have installed the DocBook tools described above, all you have to do is to run the command $db2html mydocument.sgml. If there are no sgml syntax errors, this will create a directory mydocument and place the resulting html files in it. The title page of the document will typically be mydocument/index.html. If you have screenshots in your document, you will have to copy these files into the mydocument directory by hand. You can use any web browser to view your document. Note that every time you run db2html, it creates the mydocument directory over, so you will have to copy the screenshots over each time. You can also convert your document to PostScript by running the command $db2ps mydocument.sgml, after which you can print out or view the resulting .ps file. The html files you get will not look quite the same as the documentation distributed with GNOME unless you have the custom stylesheets installed on your machine. DocBook Tools' default stylesheets will produce a different look to your docs. You can read more about the GDP stylesheets in . If your document uses images you will need to take note of a few things that should take place in order for you to make use of those images in your output. The DocBook Tools scripts and applications are smart enough to know that when you are creating html you will be using PNG files and when you are creating Postscript you will be using EPS files (you must use EPS with Postscript). Thus, you should never explicitly include the extension of the image file, since DocBook Tools will automatically insert it for you. For example: Sample GNOME Display ]]> You will notice in this example that the file myfile.png was referred to as simply myfile. Now when you run db2html to create an html file, it will automatically look for myfile.png in the directory. If you want to create PostScript output, you will need to create an EPS version of your image file to be displayed in the PostScript file. There is a simple script available which allows you to change a PNG image into an EPS file easily. You can download this file - img2eps - from http://people.redhat.com/dcm/sgml.html (look for the img2eps section). Note that this script is included in the gnome-doc-tools package, so if you are using this package, you should already have img2eps on you system. There are many resources available to help you learn DocBook. The following resources on the web are useful for learning DocBook: http://www.docbook.org - Norman Walsh's DocBook: The Definitive Guide. Online O'Reilly book on using DocBook. Contains an excellent element reference. May be too formal for a beginner. A Practical Introduction to DocBook - The Open Source Writers Group's introduction to using DocBook. This is an excellent HOW-TO type article on getting started. Getting Going with DocBook: Notes for Hackers - Mark Galassi's introduction to DocBook for hackers. This has to be one of the first introductions to DocBook ever - still as good as it ever was. FreeBSD Documentation Project Primer for New Contributors - FreeBSD documentation project primer. Chapter 4.2 provides a very good introduction to writing documentation using DocBook. Note that it also describes some custom extensions of DocBook; fortunately, they are clearly marked as such. Norman Walsh's book is also available in print. The following sections of this document are designed to help documentation authors write correct and consistent DocBook: - Descriptions of commonly used DocBook tags. You may also discuss specific DocBook questions with GDP members on the #docs IRC channel at irc.gnome.org and on the gnome-doc-list mailing list. Templates for various types of GNOME documents are found in . They are kept in CVS in gnome-docu/gdp/templates. The easiest source to get them from is probably the GDP Document Templates web page, which is typically kept completely up-to-date with CVS and has a basic description of each file from CVS. Most GNOME documents will have screenshots of the particular applet, application, GNOME component, or widget being discussed. As discussed above in you will need to install the special GDP DocBook DTD which supports PNG images, the format used for all images in GNOME documentation. For the basic DocBook structure used to insert images in a document, see above. For all screenshots of windows that typically have border decorations (e.g. applications and dialogs, but not applets in a panel), GDP standards dictate the appearance of the window. (This is to minimize possible confusion to the reader, improve the appearance of GNOME documents, and guarantee the screenshot is readable when printed.) All screenshots should be taken with the SawFish (formerly known as Sawmill) window manager using the MicroGui theme and Helvetica 12pt font. (A different window manager can be used provided the MicroGui theme is available for this window manager and the appearance is identical to that when using the SawFish window manager.) The default GTK+ theme(gtk) and font (Helvetica 12 pt) should be used for all screenshots. If you are unable to provide screenshots in this form, you should create screenshots as you wish them to appear and send them to the gnome-doc-list mailing list requesting a GDP member reproduce these screenshots in the correct format and email them to you. There are many tools for taking screenshots in GNOME/Linux. Perhaps the most convenient is the Screen-Shooter Applet. Just click on the window icon in the applet and then on the window you would like to take a screenshot of. (Note that at the time of this writing, PNG images taken by screenshooter do not appear properly in Netscape or the GNOME Help Browser. You should save your screenshot as a GIF and then use convert filename.gif filename.png.) For applets in a Panel, xv can be used to crop the screenshot to only include the relevant portion of the Panel. Note that xv and gimp can both be used for taking screenshots, cropping screenshots, and converting image formats. Screenshots should be kept in the main documentation directory with your SGML file for applets, or should be kept in a directory called "figs" for application and other documentation. After you use db2html to convert your SGML file to HTML (see ), you will need to copy your screenshots (either the individual PNG files for applet documentation, or the whole "figs" directory for other documentation) into the newly created HTML directory. Note that every time you use db2html the HTML directory is erased and rewritten, so do not store your only copy of the screenshots in that directory. If you wish to create PostScript or PDF output, you will need to manually convert the PNG images to EPS as described in , but will not need to copy these images from their default location, as they are included directly into the output(PostScript of PDF) file. Documentation authors tend to investigate and test applets and applications more thoroughly than most users. Often documentation authors will discover one or more bugs in the software. These bugs vary from small ones, such as mis-spelled words or missing About dialogs in the menu, to large ones which cause the applet to crash. As all users, you should be sure to report these bugs so that application developers know of them and can fix them. The easiest way to submit a bug report is by using the Bug Buddy applet which is part of the gnome-applets package. CVS (Concurrent Versions System) is a tool that allows multiple developers to concurrently work on a set of documents, keeping track of the modifications made by each person. The files are stored on a server and each developer checks files out, modifies them, and then checks in their modified version of the files. Many GNOME programs and documents are stored in CVS. The GNOME CVS server allows users to anonymously check out CVS files. Most GDP members will need to use anonymous CVS to download the most up-to-date version of documentation or programs. Modified documents will typically be emailed to the the application developer. Core GDP members may also be granted login CVS privileges so they may commit modified files directly to CVS. To anonymously check out documents from CVS, you must first log in. From the bash shell, you should set your CVSROOT shell variable with export CVSROOT=':pserver:anonymous@anoncvs.gnome.org:/cvs/gnome' and then login with cvs login(there is no password, just hit return). As an example, we will use the "gnome-docu/gdp" module which contains this and several other documents. To check these documents out for the first time, type cvs -z3 checkout gnome-docu/gdp. After you have this document checked out and you would like to download any updates on the CVS server, use cvs -z3 update -Pd. If you have been given a login for the GNOME CVS server, you may commit your file modifications to CVS. Be sure to read the following section on CVS etiquette before making any commits to CVS. To log in to the CVS server as user username with a password, you must first set your CVSROOT shell variable with export CVSROOT=':pserver:username@cvs.gnome.org:/cvs/gnome'. Log in with cvs login and enter your password. You may check out and update modules as described above for anonymous CVS access. As a login CVS user, you may also check modified versions of a file into the CVS server. To check filename into the CVS server, type cvs -z3 commit filename. You will be given a vi editor window to type in a brief log entry, summarizing your changes. The default editor can be changed using the EDITOR environment variable or with the -e option. You may also check in any modifications to files in the working directory and subdirectories using cvs -z3 commit. To add a new file to the CVS server, use cvs -z3 add filename, followed by the commit command. Because files in CVS are typically used and modified by multiple developers and documentation authors, users should exercise a few simple practices out of courtesy towards the other CVS users and the project leader. First, you should not make CVS commits to a package without first discussing your plans with the project leader. This way, the project leader knows who is modifying the files and generally, what sort of changes/development is being done. Also, whenever a CVS user commits a file to CVS, they should make an entry in the CVS log and in the ChangeLog so that other users know who is making modifications and what is being modified. When modifying files created by others, you should follow the indentation scheme used by the initial author. At the core of the GNOME help system is the GNOME Help Browser. The Help Browser provides a unified interface to several distinct documentation systems on Linux/Unix systems: man pages, texinfo pages, Linux Documentation Project(LDP) documents, GNOME application documentation, and other GNOME documents. The GNOME Help Browser works by searching standard directories for documents which are to be presented. Thus, the documentation that appears in the GHB is specific to each computer and will typically only represent software that is installed on the computer. In GNOME 2.0, the GNOME Help Browser will be replaced by Nautilus. Nautilus will be the file manager/graphical shell for GNOME 2.0 and will also implement a more sophisticated help system than that used by the GNOME Help Browser used in GNOME 1.0. It will read and display DocBook files directly, avoiding the need for duplicating documents in both DocBook and HTML formats. Its display engine for DocBook will be much faster than running jade to convert to HTML for rendering. Because it uses the original DocBook source for documentation, it will be possible to do more sophisticated searching using the meta information included in the documents. And since Nautilus is a virtual file system layer which is Internet-capable, it will be able to find and display documents which are on the web as well as those on the local file system. For more information on Nautilus, visit the #nautilus IRC channel on irc.gnome.org. GNOME uses the documentation presented by all the various GNOME components and applications installed on the system to present a complete and customized documentation environment describing only components which are currently installed on a users system. Some of this documentation, such as the manuals for applets, will be combined in such a way that it appears to be a single document. By using such a system, you can be sure that any GNOME app you install that has documentation will show up in the index, table of contents, any search you do in the help browser. Every GNOME application should have an application manual. An application manual is a document specific to the particular application which explains the various windows and features of the application. Application Manuals typically use screenshots (PNG format) for clarity. Writing application manuals is discussed in more detail in below. Applications should have a Help button on screens on which users may need help. These Help buttons should pull up the default help browser, determined by the ghelp URL Handler (configured using the Control Center), typically the GNOME Help Browser. The help browser should show either the first page of the application manual, or else the relevant page thereof. Application help is described in more detail in below. Context sensitive help is a system which will allow the user to query any part (button, widget, etc.) of an application window. This is done by either entering a CS Help mode by clicking on an icon or by right clicking on the application part and selecting "What's This" or whatever is decided on at the time. Context sensitive help is described in more detail in below. The GNOME User Guide describes the GNOME desktop environment and core components of GNOME such as the panel and control center. In GNOME 1.x this was the main and only source of documentation. In GNOME 2.0 this will become a document for the web and for printing that is derived from various parts chosen in the system that are necessary for the new user to understand. Aside from the GNOME User Guide, there are several other documents to help GNOME users learn GNOME, including the GNOME FAQ, GNOME Installation and Configuration Guide, and the GNOME Administrators Guide. There are many White Papers, Tutorials, HOWTO's and FAQ's to make programming GNOME and GNOME applications as easy as possible. API documentation is also available for the GNOME libraries. This is detailed documentation of the code that is used to build GNOME apps. You can keep up with the GNOME API docs on the GNOME API Reference page. Some GNOME projects have documentation to maintain consistency in their product and to help new contributors get up to speed quickly. Among these are the GDP documents, such as the one you are reading now. To understand DocBook, a basic understanding of SGML is helpful. SGML stands for Standard General Markup Language and is one of the first markup languages every created. HTML is actually derived from SGML and XML is a subset of SGML. SGML uses what is called a Document Type Definition to specify elements which are contained between brackets, < and >. Text is marked by both beginning and ending elements, for example in the DocBook DTD, one denotes a title with <title>The Title</title>. The DTD (in the case of the GDP, DocBook) defines rules for how the elements can be used. For example, if one element can only be used when embedded within another, this is defined in the DTD. An SGML file is just a plain ASCII file containing the text with the markup specified above. To convert it to some easily readable format, you need special tools. The GDP uses DocBook Tools, a free package of utilities for working with DocBook which includes Jade, which does the SGML/DSSL parsing. You can read more about DocBook Tools in . The final appearance of the output (e.g. PostScript or HTML) is determined by a stylesheet. Stylesheets are files, written in a special language (DSSSL — Document Style Semantics and Specification Language), which specify the appearance of various DocBook elements, for example, what fonts to use for titles and various inline elements, page numbering style, and much more. DocBook tools come with a collection of stylesheets (Norman Walsh's modular stylesheets); GNOME Document Project uses some customized version of this stylesheets — see . The advantage of specifying the structure of a document with SGML instead of specifying the appearance of the document with a typical word processor, or with html, is that the resulting document can be processed in a variety of ways using the structural information. Whereas formatting a document for appearance assumes a medium (typically written text on a standard-sized piece of paper), SGML can be processed to produce output for a large variety of media such as text, postscript, HTML, Braille, audio, and potentially many other formats. Using 'content' as the elements to define the text of a document also allows for search engines to make use of the actual elements to make a "smarter search". For example, if you are searching for all documents written by the author "Susie" your search engine could be made smart enough to only search <author> elements, making for a faster and more accurate search. Since the overall appearance of the output is determined not by the DTD or the SGML document, but rather by a stylesheet, the appearance of a document can be easily changed just by changing the stylesheet. This allows everyone in the project to create documents that all look the same. As stated before, the GDP uses the DocBook DTD. For a list of introductory and reference resources on DocBook, see . The following sections also provide convenient instructions on which markup tags to use in various circumstances. Be sure to read for GDP documentation-specific guidelines. In not so distant future (probably before GNOME 2.0), DocBook itself and GNOME Documentation project will migrate from SGML to XML. This transition should be relatively painless: (almost) all DocBook tags will remain the same. However, XML has stricter syntax rules than SGML; thus, some constructions which are valid in SGML will not be valid in XML. Therefore, to be ready for this transistion, it is strongly advised that the documentation writers conform to XML syntax rules. Here are most important differences: Minimization It is possible with some implementations of SGML to use minimizations to close elements in a document by using </>, for example: <title>The Title</>. This is not allowed in XML. You can use sgmlnorm command, included in DocBook Tools package, to expand minimized tags; if you are using Emacs with psgml mode, you can also use menu command Modify Normalize . Self-closing tags Also, in SGML some tags are allowed not to have closing tags. For example, it is legal for <xref> not to have a closing tag: <xref linkend="someid">. In XML, it is illegal; instead, you should use <xref linkend="someid"/> (note the slash!). Case sensitive tags In XML, unlike SGML, tags are case-senstive <title> and <TITLE> are different tags! Therefore, please always use lowercase tags (except for things like DOCTYPE, CDATA and ENTITY, which are not DocBook tags). Top-level element of a book body must be <chapter>; it may contain one or more <sect1>, each of them may contain <sect2> and so on up to <sect5>. The top-level element of an article body is always <sect1>. Regardless of which elements you use, give each structural element a unique id, so that you can link to it. For usage example, see the template. Please try to avoid using deeply nested sections; for most situations, <sect1> and <sect2> should be sufficient. If not, you probably should split your <sect1> into several smaller ones. Use the tag <para> for paragraphs, even if there is only one paragraph in a section—see template for examples. For notes, tips, warnings, and important information, which should be set apart from the main text (usually as a paragraph with some warning sign on the margin), use tags <note>, <tip>, <warning>, <important> respectively. For example: To speed up program compilation, use gcc compiler with Pentium optimization. ]]> produces To speed up program compilation, use gcc compiler with Pentium optimization. Note that this should not be inside a <para> but between paragraphs. To include screenshots and other figures, use the following tags: Screenshot of a program ]]> replacing example_screenshot with the actual file name (without extension). The result will look like this:

Screenshot of a program

Notice in this example that the screenshot file name does not include the file type extension — to find out why, please read . To show a file fragment—for example, program listing—use <programlisting> tag: [Desktop Entry] Name=Gnumeric spreadsheet Exec=gnumeric Icon=gnome-gnumeric.png Terminal=0 Type=Application ]]> which produces [Desktop Entry] Name=Gnumeric spreadsheet Exec=gnumeric Icon=gnome-gnumeric.png Terminal=0 Type=Application As a matter of fact, all examples in this document were produced using <programlisting>. To show a record of terminal session—i.e., sequence of commands entered at the command line—use <screen> tag: bash$make love make: *** No rule to make target `love'. Stop. ]]> which produces bash$make love make: *** No rule to make target `love'. Stop. Note the use of tags <prompt> and <userinput> for marking system prompt and commands entered by user. Note that both <programlisting> and <screen> preserve linebreaks, but interpret SGML tags (unlike LaTeX verbatim environment). Take a look at the source of this document to see how you can have SGML tags literally shown but not interpreted, The most common list types in DocBook are <itemizedlist>, <orderedlist>, and <variablelist>. <itemizedlist> This is the simplest unnumbered list, parallel to <ul> in HTML. Here is an example: Show backup files — This will show any backup file that might be on your system. Show hidden files — This will show all "dot files" or files that begin with a dot. This files typically include configuration files and directories. Mix files and directories — This option will display files and directories in the order you sort them instead of always having directories shown above files. ]]> and output: Show backup files — This will show any backup file that might be on your system. Show hidden files — This will show all "dot files" or files that begin with a dot. This files typically include configuration files and directories. Mix files and directories — This option will display files and directories in the order you sort them instead of always having directories shown above files. Note the use of &mdash; for long dash (see ). Also, please note that the result looks much nicer because the terms being explained (Show backup files, etc.) are set in a different font. In this case, it was achieved by using <guilabel> tag. In other cases, use appropriate tags such as <guimenuitem>, <command>, or — if none of this applies — use <emphasis>. <orderedlist> This list is completely analogous to <itemizedlist> and has the same syntax, but it produces numbered list. By default, this list uses Arabic numerals for numbering entries; you can override this using numeration, for example <orderedlist numeration="lowerroman">. Possible values of these attribute are arabic, upperalpha, loweralpha, upperroman, lowerroman. <variablelist> This list is used when each entry is rather long, so it should be formatted as a block of text with some subtitle, like a small subsection. The <variablelist> is more complicated than itemizedlists, but for larger blocks of text, or when you're explaining or defining something, it's best to use them. Their greatest advantage is that it's easier for a computer to search. The lines you are reading now were produced by <variablelist>. The source looked liked this: <itemizedlist> This is the simplest unnumbered list, parallel to <ul> in HTML. Here is an example:... <orderedlist> This list is completely analogous to <itemizedlist> <variablelist> This list is used when each entry is rather long,... ]]> Lists can be nested; in this case, the stylesheets are smart enough to change the numeration (for <orderedlist>) or marks of each entry (in <itemizedlist>) for sub-lists <guibutton> — used for buttons, including checkbuttons and radio buttons <guimenu>, <guisubmenu> —used for top-level menus and submenus respectively, for example Utilities submenu of the Main Menu]]> <guimenuitem>—an entry in a menu <guiicon>—an icon <guilabel>—for items which have labels, like tabs, or bounding boxes. <interface>— for most everything else... a window, a dialog box, the Panel, etc. If you need to refer to a sequence of menu choices, such as Main Menu Utilities GNOME terminal there is a special construction for this, too: Main Menu Utilities GNOME terminal ]]> To refer to another place in the same document, you can use tags <xref> and <link>. The first of them automatically inserts the full name of the element you refer to (section, figure, etc.), while the second just creates a link (in HTML output). Here is an example: tip was given in . ]]> which produces: An example of a tip was given in . Here notes and extip are the id attributes of and of the example of a tip in it. To produce a link to an external source, such as a Web page or a local file, use <ulink> tag, for example: GNOME Web page ]]> which produces: To find more about GNOME, please visit The GNOME Web Site You can use any of the standard URL types, such as http, ftp, file, telnet, mailto (in most cases, however, use of mailto is unnecessary—see discussion of <email> tag). Here are some tags used to describe operating system-related things: <filename> — used for filenames, e.g.<filename> foo.sgml </filename> produces: foo.sgml. <filename class="directory"> — used for directories, e.g.<filename class="directory">/usr/bin </filename> produces: /usr/bin. <application> — used for application names, e.g. <application>Gnumeric </application> produces: Gnumeric. <envar> — used for environment variables, e.g. <envar>PATH</envar>. <command> — used for commands entered on command line, e.g. <command>make install </command> produces: make install. <replaceable> — used for replaceable text, e.g. <command>db2html<replaceable> foo.sgml </replaceable></command> produces: db2html foo.sgml. To mark up text input by the user, use <userinput>. To mark keystrokes such as shortcuts and other commands, use <keycap>. This is used for marking up what is printed on the top of the physical key on the keyboard. There are a couple of other tags for keys, too: <keysym> and <keycode>. However you are unlikely to need these for most documentation. For reference, <keysym> is for the symbolic name of a key. <keycode> is for the scan code of a key. These are not terms commonly required in GNOME documentation, although <keysym> is useful for marking up control codes. To mark up a combination of keystrokes, use the <keycombo> wrapper: Ctrl Alt F1 ]]> Finally, if you want to show a shortcut for some menu command, here are the appropriate tags (rather long): Ctrlq Quit ]]> which produces simply Ctrl-q Quit To mark up e-mail address, use <email>: me@mydomain.com)]]> which produces: The easiest way to get in touch with me is by e-mail (me@mydomain.com) Note that <email> automatically produces a link in html version. DocBook also provides special means for entering typographic symbols which can not be entered directly form the keyboard (such as copyright sign). This is done using entities, which is SGML analogue of macros, or commands, of LaTeX. They generally have the form &entityname;. Note that the semicolon is required. here is partial list of most commonly used enitites: &amp; — ampersend (&) &lt; — left angle bracket (<) &copy; — copyright sign (©) &mdash; — long dash (—) &hellip; — ellipsis (…) Note that the actual look of the resulting symbols depends on the fonts used by your browser; for example, it might happen that long dash (&mdash;) looks exactly like the usual dash (-). However, in the PostScript (and thus, in print) the output will look markedly better if you use appropriate tags. All GNOME documentation should conform to XML syntax requirements, which are stricter than SGML ones — see for more informaion. All GNOME documentation should contain the names of both the application authors and documentation authors, as well as a link to the application web page (if it exists) and information for bug submission — see templates for an example. Application documentation should identify the version of the application for which the documentation is written: blah-blah-blah This document describes version 1.0.53 of gfoo. ]]> Application documentation should contain a copyright notice, stating the licensing terms. It is suggested that you use the GNU Free Documentation License. You could also use some other license allowing free redistribution, such as GPL or Open Content license. If documentation uses some trademarks (such as UNIX, Linux, Windows, etc.), proper legal junk should also be included (see templates). All GNOME applications must contain information about the license (for software, not for documentation), either in the "About" box or in the manual. Application documentation should give an address for reporting bugs and for submitting comments about the documentaion (see templates for an example). Every GNOME application or applet should have a manual specific to that particular application. This manual should be a complete and authoritative guide. The manual should describe what the program does and how to use it. Manuals will typically describe each window or panel presented to the user using screenshots (in PNG format only) when appropriate. They should also describe each feature and preference option available. Applications and applets should not rely on documentation which is only available on the internet. All manuals and other documentation should be packaged with the application or applet and be made available to the user through the standard GNOME help system methods described below. Application manuals should be based on the template in . Applet manuals should be based on the templates in for GNOME versions 1.x and the templates in for GNOME versions 2.x. Manuals for very large applications, such as GNOME Workshop components should be a <book> (and thus use <chapter> for each primary section) , instead of <article> which most applications use(with each primary section being a <sect1>). Note that applet manuals in GNOME 2.0 are treated in a special way. The manuals for all applets are merged into a single virtual document by Nautilus. For this reason, the header information for applet manuals is omitted and the first section of each applet is <sect1>. Applet manuals will typically have several sections, each of which is <sect2>. Application manuals should be made available by having a "Manual" entry in the Help pull-down menu at the top of the application, as described in . Applets should make their manuals available by right-clicking on the applet. This section is for developers. Documentation authors generally do not need to know this material. Typically the application manual and possibly additional help documents will be made available to the user under the Help menu at the top right of the application. To do this, you must first write a topic.dat file. The format for this file is: One line for each 'topic'. Two columns, as defined by perl -e 'split(/\s+/,$aline,2)' First column is the HTML file (and optional section) for the topic, relative to the app's help file dir. Second column is the user-visible topic name. For example, Gnumeric's topic.dat file is: gnumeric.html Gnumeric manual function-reference.html Gnumeric function reference When the application is installed, the topic.dat file should be placed in the $prefix/share/gnome/help/appname/C/ directory where appname is replaced by the application's name. The application documentation (converted from SGML into HTML with db2html) should be placed in this directory too. If the help files are not present in the correct directory, the menu items will NOT appear when the program is run. The topic.dat file is used by the GNOME menu building code to generate the Help menu. When you define your menu: GnomeUIInfo helpmenu[] = { {GNOME_APP_UI_ITEM, N_("About"), N_("Info about this program"), about_cb, NULL, NULL, GNOME_APP_PIXMAP_STOCK, GNOME_STOCK_MENU_ABOUT, 0, 0, NULL}, GNOMEUIINFO_SEPARATOR, GNOMEUIINFO_HELP("appname"), GNOMEUIINFO_END }; the line specifying GNOMEUIINFO_HELP causes GNOME to create a menu entry which is tied to the documentation in the directory mentioned above. Also, all the topics in the topic.dat file will get menu entries in the Help menu. When the user selects any of these topics from the Help menu, a help browser will be started with the associated HTML documentation. This section is for developers. Documentation authors generally do not need to know this material. Most GNOME applications will have Help buttons. These are most often seen in Preference windows. (All Preference windows should have Help buttons.) Most Help buttons will connect to the application manual, although some may connect to special documents. Because the Help buttons do not generally have their own special documentation, the documentation author(s) do not need to do very much. However, the application author must be careful to guarantee that the application correctly opens the help documentation when the Help buttons are pressed. To make the Help buttons call the correct document in the GNOME Help Browser the developer should add code based on the following example: gchar *tmp; tmp = gnome_help_file_find_file ("module", "page.html"); if (tmp) { gnome_help_goto(0, tmp); g_free(tmp); } The example above is in the C language, please refer to other documentation or forums for other GNOME language bindings. In GNOME 2.0 each applet will have its own documentation installed separately, and the GNOME 2.0 help browser (Nautilus) will dynamically merge the applet documents into a single virtual book called GNOME Applets. During the transitionary stage between GNOME 1.0 and GNOME 2.0, each applet in the gnome-applets package has its own manual(stored with the applet in CVS), but they are merged together manually to create the GNOME Applets book before distribution. Telsa hobbit@aloss.ukuu.org.uk is the maintainer of this document. Applet documentation should be sent to Telsa (or placed in CVS) who will make sure they are correctly packaged with the applets. The applet author should be contacted to modify the menu items and help buttons to bind to the applet documentation if necessary. Images which are part of the applet documentation should be in PNG format and should reside in the same directory as the SGML document file in CVS(gnome-applets/APPLETNAME/help/C). Applets which are not part of the gnome-applets package must package their documentation with the particular applet package. They should use the same applet template as other applets. However, the <xref> links to the introductory chapter of the GNOME Applets book must be removed (as the 1.x GNOME Help Browser does not allow you to create links between separate documents) and replaced with suitable text. Note that since this document is not part of the GNOME Applets book, you must remember to add <legalnotice> and <copyright> sections. This section is for developers. Documentation authors generally do not need to know this material. Applets should have About and Manual menu items, typically as the first and second top-most items in the menu respectively. This section describes how the developer creates these menu items and links them to the documentation. To add an applet's manual to its applet menu, use: /* add an item to the applet menu */ applet_widget_register_callback(APPLET_WIDGET(applet), "manual", _("Manual"), &open_manual, NULL); Here the second argument is an arbitrary name for the callback, the third argument is the label which will appear when the user right clicks on the applet, and the fourth argument is the callback function. You will need to write a simple callback function to open the help browser to the appropriate document. This is done using the gnome_help_file_find_file function, as described in . You will also want to add an About menu item to the applet's menu. This is a stock menu item and is done: applet_widget_register_stock_callback (APPLET_WIDGET(applet), "about", GNOME_STOCK_MENU_ABOUT, _("About"), &my_applet_cb_about, NULL); More information can be found at Writing GNOME panel applets using the GTK+/GTK-- widget set. Context sensitive help, also known as "pop-up" help, will allow a user to obtain help information about specific buttons or parts of an application. Context sensitive help is still under development and not all the details are available at this time. However, the basics can be shown here so that you can understand how the system will work. The Context Sensitive Help system is designed to allow the developer to give an id to a particular portion of the User Interface, for example, a button. Once the interface is complete a Perl script can then be run against the interface code to create a "map" file. This map file allows the developer or writer to associate particular paragraph sections from an XML document to the interface items. The XML used for the document is a small XML DTD that is being developed to use the same tags (albeit, much fewer) as DocBook so that writers do not have to re-learn a new DTD. Once the document is written and map file is complete, when the user launches context sensitive help on the interface (either by pressing a button and then clicking on the interface item they want information on, or by right mouse clicking on the interface item and selecting a pop-up menu item like "What's This") a small transient window will appear with brief but detailed information on the interface item. In the GNOME 2.0 Help System, you will be able to create links from one document to another. The exact mechanism for doing this is in development. Most people have never enjoyed reading a software manual, and they probably never will. Many times, they'll read the documentation only when they run into problems, and they'll be frustrated and upset before they even read a word. On the other hand, some readers will read the manual all the way through, or at least look at the introduction before they start. Your document might serve as a reference for an expert or a guide to a beginner, and it must have enough depth to satisfy the first without overwhelming the second. Ideally, it will serve beginners as they become experts. Remember, your goal is to produce complete, intuitive and clear documentation. In order to write useful documentation, you'll have to know who your audience is likely to be. Then, you can look for the problems they're likely to run into, and solve them. It will also help if you focus on the tasks users will perform, and group features accordingly, rather than simply describing features at random. Begin documenting by learning how to use the application and reading over any existing documentation. Pay attention to places where your document will differ from the template. It may help to develop a document skeleton: a valid XML or SGML document that has little or no content. For very large applications, you will need to make significant departures from the templates, since you'll be using the <book> tag instead of <chapter> or <article>. Just as you need to juggle expert and novice readers, you'll have to juggle a number of other extremes as you write: Documents should be complete, yet concise. You should describe every feature, but you'll have decide how much detail is really necessary. It's not, for example, necessary to describe every button and form field in a dialog box, but you should make sure that your readers know how to bring up the dialog and what it does. If you spend fewer words on the obvious, you can spend more time clarifying the ambiguous labels and explaining items that are more complex. Be engaging and friendly, yet professional. Games documents may be less formal than productivity application documents (people don't use games, they play them), but all of them should maintain a standard of style which holds the reader's interest without resorting to jokes and untranslatable allusions or puns. Examples, tips, notes, and screenshots are useful to break up long stretches of text, but too many can get in the way, and make your documents too choppy to read. It's good to provide a screenshot of any dialog windows a user might run into, but if a dialog box has several tabs, it's not usually necessary to have one for each. The GDP strives to have all of its documentation conform to certain standards of style and content, but every document (and every writer) is different. You will need to use your judgement, and write documents to fit with the rest of the project, without compromising the individual needs of your subject, or your own individuality as a writer. In general, you won't have to worry too much about structure, because the templates provide you with an excellent example. As a general rule, try to follow that structural example. That means using links, hierarchical nesting, and, if necessary, a glossary or index. You probably won't need to use every available structural tag, but take advantage of what DocBook provides you. As to linking, there's some disagreement about whether to use <xref> <link> when you make links within your documents. You'll have to decide, based on the different ways that they are presented in output, which is more appropriate given the context. Regardless of which you use, you should not forget to use them. Help your readers find information that relevant to the issue at hand. The table of contents will be generated automatically, but you will probably have to develop your own index if you wish to have one. The Nautilus Help Browser will have new, and currently unknown, indexing capabilities, so index style and structure are still under discussion. The GNOME User's Guide will contain a glossary in its next versions; unless you're writing a<book>, it will probably be best to contribute to that rather than developing your own. Nobody expects you to be perfect; they just expect the documentation for their software to be error-free. That means that, in the same way that developers look for bugs and accept bug reports, writers must check for errors in their documents. Poor grammar, bad spelling, and gross technical errors in draft documents are fine. However, if those problems show up in a "real" release, they can count against the credibility of GNOME and Linux. They'll also make you look bad. There is no substitute for a human proofreader; use a spell-check program, then read it over yourself, and then find someone else to help you. Other GDP members are, of course, willing and able to help you, but non-writers are often at least as helpful. Proofreading documents is both a also a good way to familiarize yourself with documentation, and it certainly makes you valuable to the GDP. Help other writers proof their documents, and they will help you with yours. The GDP team is a valuable resource for any documentation author. GDP members can answer most questions documentation authors have during the course of their work. It is also important to make sure you are not duplicating work of other GDP members by visiting the GDP Documentation Status Table (http://www.gnome.org/gdp/doctable/) and assigning a documentation item to yourself. This table also provides a forum for making suggestions and announcements for each documentation item. The best way to get in touch with GDP members is on the #docs IRC channel at irc.gnome.org or else by emailing the gnome-doc-list mailing list. After an author has finished a document (or even a draft version of the document), it is a good idea to ask a member of the GDP team to read the document, checking it for grammar, proper DocBook markup, and clarity. One may typically find another author to do this by either asking on the #docs IRC channel at irc.gnome.org or by emailing the gnome-doc-list mailing list. Writing documentation typically involves a certain amount of interaction with the developers of GNOME or the application which is being documented. Often a document author will need to ask the developer technical questions during the course of writing a document. After the document is finished, it is good idea to ask the developer to read the document to make sure it is technically correct. The documentation author should also make sure that the application author correctly binds and packages the documentation with the application. When the document is finished, the document should be edited by another member of the GDP for spelling, clarity, and DocBook markup. It should also be read by an application author to make sure the document is technically accurate. After the document has been edited and checked for technical accuracy, it is ready to be combined with the application or documentation package. This is typically done by passing the document to the application or package developer. In some cases, the documents can be committed directly into CVS, however this should only be done after obtaining permission to make CVS commits from the developer. Note that in many cases, the application may need to be modified to correctly link to the documentation. The packaging system (tarballs and binary packages) may also need to be modified to include the documentation in the package. Generally, this should be done by the developers. The final step is to email the GNOME Translation Team at gnome-i18n@nuclecu.unam.mx to notify them that there is a new document for them to translate. The GNOME Documentation Project Web page lists current GDP projects and members. The GDP Documentation Status Table tracks the status of all the various documentation components of GNOME. Norman Walsh's DocBook: The Definitive Guide in an excellent book on DocBook, available both online and in print. Docbook: The Definitive Guide is available in both printed form and on the web at: Docbook: The Definitive Guide The gnome-docs-list mailing list is the main discussion area for all contributors to the GNOME Documentation Project. You can find out how to subscribe to this list on GNOME Mailing Lists. This is a rather low-volume list, so you will not be flooded with messages. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a fast and easy way to get in touch with other GDP members. There are generally at least a few members here who can answer questions or discuss documentation issues. The IRC channel is #docs at irc.gnome.org. The following template should be used for all application manuals. You can always get the latest copy of this template from GDP Documentation Templates. ]>

2000 ME-THE-AUTHOR Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. You may obtain a copy of the GNU Free Documentation License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to: Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. Many of the names used by companies to distinguish their products and services are claimed as trademarks. Where those names appear in any GNOME documentation, and those trademarks are made aware to the members of the GNOME Documentation Project, the names have been printed in caps or initial caps. This is version 1.0 of MY-GNOME-APP manual. MY-GNOME-APP is an application which proves mathematical theorems. It has all the basic features expected from a mathematical theorem prover, as well as a number of advanced ones, such as proof by confusion. In fact, many of the proofs produced by MY-GNOME-APP are so complex that they are capable of proving almost anything with a virtually null likelihood of being disproven. It also has the very popular predecessor of proof by confusion, proof by dialog, first implemented by Plato. It also allows you to save and print theorem proofs and to add comments to the proofs it produces. To run MY-GNOME-APP, select SUBMENU MY-GNOME-APP from the Main Menu, or type MYGNOMEAPP on the command line. MY-GNOME-APP is included in the GNOME-PACKAGE package, which is part of the GNOME desktop environment. This document describes version &version; of MY-GNOME-APP. MY-GNOME-APP can be used to produce a perfect proof of any mathematical theorem (provided, of course, that this theorem is correct), thus providing for new users an easy-to-use graphical interface to modern mathematics. This section describes basic usage of MY-GNOME-APP. Starting MY-GNOME-APP opens the Main window, shown in . The window is at first empty.

MY-GNOME-APP Main Window

To get a proof of a theorem, select File New , which will bring up the New Proof dialog box. Enter the statement of the theorem in the Theorem statement field, select your desired proof type from the drop-down menu, and press Prove!. If MY-GNOME-APP cannot prove the theorem by the method you have chosen, or if you have not selected a proof type at all, MY-GNOME-APP will attempt to choose the one that it thinks is most conclusive. In order, it will attempt to prove the theorem with the following techniques: Deduction This is a proof method that is generally accepted for full credit by Logic professors. Induction This logical style will also earn you full credit on your homework. Dialog This logical method is best for Philosophy classes, and will probably only merit partial credit on Logic or Mathematics homework. Confusion Suitable only for political debates, battles of wits against the unarmed, and Philosophy classes focusing on the works of Kant. Use with caution. MY-GNOME-APP cannot prove incorrect theorems. If the theorem you have entered is not demonstrably true, you will get a message to that effect in the main window. To disprove a theorem, ask MY-GNOME-APP to prove its logical inverse. Once you have proven the theorem, it will be displayed in the main window. There, you can read it over, choose text styles for different portions of it, and make comments on it. This section will guide you through that process. To alter text styles, first select the statement you wish to change by clicking on it once. You can select several statements by Then, choose the style you want to apply from the Style submenu of the Edit menu. MY-GNOME-APP will convert the text to that style. You can also enter comments on a statement by selecting that statement, and then beginning to type. Comments will appear after the statement you have selected. MY-GNOME-APP does not allow you to alter a proof it has produced itself. You can, save your proof as a plain text file (using the Save as... menu), and alter it that way. Be aware, however, that MY-GNOME-APP uses its own file format for saved proofs, and cannot re-open a file unless it is in the .mga format. The toolbar (shown in ) provides access to several commonly used routines.

MY-GNOME-APP Toolbar

New Brings up the New Theorem dialog. Open Open an exisiting theorem you want to prove, or a completed proof you wish to print or format. Save Save the current theorem permanently in a file. The menu bar, located at the top of the Main Window, contains the following menus: File This menu contains: F3 Open — This opens a file which is saved on your computer. CtrlS Save — This saves your file. CtrlW Close — This closes your file. CtrlQ Exit — This quits the application. Edit This menu contains: CtrlX Cut — This removes any text or data which is selected and places it in the buffer. CtrlC Copy — This copies any text or data which is selected into the buffer. CtrlV Paste — This pastes any text or data which is copied into the buffer. COMMAND1… — This opens the COMMAND1 dialog, which is used to .... COMMAND2 — This .... Settings This menu contains: Preferences… — This opens the Preferences Dialog, which allows you to configure many settings. COMMAND3 — This command does something. Help This menu contains: Manual — This opens the GNOME Help Browser and displays this manual. About — This opens the About dialog which shows basic information about MY-GNOME-APP, such as the author's name, the application version number, and the URL for the application's Web page if one exists. To change the application settings, select Settings Preferences... . This opens the Preferences dialog, shown in .

Preferences Dialog

The properties in the PREFSTABNAME tab are: Default Text Style Select the default text style for statements in your proof. You can still change the style for individual proofs or sections of a proof at a later date. (Configuration Item Label) (Description of Configuration) (Configuration Item Label) (Description of Configuration) The properties in the SECONDTABNAME tab are: (Configuration Item Label) (Description of Configuration) (Configuration Item Label) (Description of Configuration) After you have made all the changes you want, click on OK to apply the changes and close the Properties dialog. To cancel the changes and return to previous values, click the Close button. This application has no known bugs. MY-GNOME-APP was written by GNOME-HACKER (hacker@gnome.org). To find more information about MY-GNOME-APP, please visit the MY-GNOME-APP Web page. Please send all comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the GNOME bug tracking database. (Instructions for submitting bug reports can be found on-line.) You can also use Bug Report Tool (bug-buddy), available in the Utilities submenu of Main Menu, for submitting bug reports. This manual was written by ME (MYNAME@MYADDRESS). Please send all comments and suggestions regarding this manual to the GNOME Documentation Project by sending an email to docs@gnome.org. You can also add your comments online by using the GNOME Documentation Status Table. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as an appendix to the GNOME Users Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to

Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330 Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

]]> The following templates should be used for all applet manuals in GNOME 1.x releases. You can always get the latest copy of these templates from GDP Documentation Templates. Note that the template consists of two files; the first file calls the second as an entity. You should name the first file appletname-applet.sgml and the second file should be named appletname.sgml, where appletname is the name of the applet. ]>

2000 YOURFULLNAME Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. You may obtain a copy of the GNU Free Documentation License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to: Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. Many of the names used by companies to distinguish their products and services are claimed as trademarks. Where those names appear in any GNOME documentation, and those trademarks are made aware to the members of the GNOME Documentation Project, the names have been printed in caps or initial caps. This is version XXX of the APPLETNAME applet manual. &APPLETNAME.sgml;

]]> APPLET applet, shown in , allows you to …. To add this applet to a Panel, right-click on the Panel and choose Panel Add to panel Applet SECTION APPLET .

APPLET Applet

(Place a short description of how to use the applet here.) Right-clicking on the applet brings up a menu containing the following items: Properties… — opens the Properties dialog. Help — displays this document. About… — shows basic information about APPLET Applet, including the applet's version and the author's name. You can customize APPLET applet by right-clicking on it and choosing Properties…. This will open the Properties dialog(shown in ), which allows you to change various settings.

Properties dialog

The properties are: (Configuration Item Label) — If this button is checked…(description) (Configuration Item Label) — Selecting this button…(description) (Configuration Item Label) — Enter the name of …(description) After you have made all the changes you want, click on OK to apply the changes and close the Properties dialog. To cancel the changes and return to previous values, click the Close button. This applet has no known bugs. APPLET was written by GNOME-HACKER (hacker@gnome.org). Please send all comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the GNOME bug tracking database. (Instructions for submitting bug reports can be found on-line. You can also use Bug Report Tool (bug-buddy), available in the Utilities submenu of Main Menu, for submitting bug reports. This manual was written by ME (MYNAME@MYADDRESS). Please send all comments and suggestions regarding this manual to the GNOME Documentation Project by sending an email to docs@gnome.org. You can also submit comments online by using the GNOME Documentation Status Table. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as an appendix to the GNOME Users Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to

Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330 Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

]]> The following templates should be used for all applet manuals in GNOME 2.x releases. You can always get the latest copy of these templates from GDP Documentation Templates. Note that this template consists of two files. The first file is an introductory chapter. You should not modify this chapter. The second file is the actual applet document, which you should modify to describe the applet you are documenting. You can name the first file whatever you like, such as gnome-applets.sgml. Name the second file according to the applet's name: appletname-applet.sgml. Make sure you update the entity at the top of the shell document to reflect the new name of the applet document. ]> TelsaGwynne JohnFleck DavidMason Red Hat, Inc. DanMueth AlexanderKirillov GNOME Applets version 0.1 for GNOME 1.1.5 2000 2000 Telsa Gwynne, John Fleck, Red Hat Inc., Dan Mueth, and Alexander Kirillov Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the Free Software Foundation. Many of the names used by companies to distinguish their products and services are claimed as trademarks. Where those names appear in any GNOME documentation, and those trademarks are made aware to the members of the GNOME Documentation Project, the names have been printed in caps or initial caps. Applets are one of the most popular and useful objects you can add to your Panel to customize your desktop. An applet is a small application which runs inside a small area of your Panel. Applets have been written for a wide range of purposes. Some are very powerful interactive tools, such as the Tasklist Applet which allows you to easily control all of your main applications. Others are simple system monitors, displaying information such as the amount of power left in the battery on your laptop (see Battery Charge Monitor) or weather information(see GNOME Weather). Some are simply for amusement(see Fish). Applets are similar to swallowed applications in that both of them reside within the Panel. However, swallowed applications are generally applications which were not designed to run within the Panel. Typically one will swallow an application which already exists in the main desktop area, putting it into your Panel. The application will continue to run in the Panel until you end the application or unswallow it, placing it back onto the main part of your desktop when you need to.

Example Applets

Several example applets are shown in . From left to right, they are: (1) Mixer Applet, which allows you to turn on/off sound and control its volume by clicking on the applet. (2) Sound Monitor Applet, which displays the current volume of sound being played and allows you to control various sound features. (3) GTCD Applet, a CD player which has all its controls available in the applet and displays the track and time. (4) Drive Mount Applet, used to mount and unmount drives with a single click of the mouse. (5) Desk Guide which allows you to view and control multiple virtual screens. (6) Tasklist Applet which allows you to control your various windows and applications. There are many other applets to choose from. The rest of this chapter will explain the basic information to get you started adding, moving, and removing applets from your Panels and using them. The following chapters go through each of the standard GNOME applets describing them in detail. There are also additional applets which can be downloaded off the Web. See The GNOME Software Map for lists of additional GNOME applications and applets. As you read through the the rest of this chapter, you should try adding and removing applets from your Panel and experiment with them freely. To add an applet to a Panel, right-click on the Panel and select PanelAdd to panel Applet. This will show you the menu of all the applets on your system, divided into categories. Choosing any applet from this menu will add it to the Panel. It is easy to move applets in a Panel or between two Panels. If you have a three-button mouse, just move the mouse over the applet, depress the middle mouse button and drag the applet to its new location, releasing the middle mouse button when you are finished. Note that you can drag applets within a Panel or between two Panels this way. If you don't have a three-button mouse, just right-click on the applet and choose Move. The cursor will turn into a cross and the applet will move with your mouse until you press any mouse button to indicate you are finished moving it. If, in the course of this movement, it hits other objects, the behavior depends on the global preferences you have set for your Panels in the GNOME Control Center: the applet you are moving can switch places with other objects, "push" all objects it meets, or "jump" over all other objects without disturbing them. You can also override the default behavior by holding Shift button (for "push" mode), Ctrl (for "switched" mode), or Alt (for "free" mode, i.e. jumping other other objects without disturbing them) button while dragging. To change the global Panel preferences, right-click on any applet or Panel and select Panel Global Preferences... . The Default movement mode is set under the Applets tab. To remove an applet from a Panel, right-click on the applet and select Remove from panel.... Clicking the right mouse button on any applet brings up a pop-up menu. This menu always has certain standard menu items in it and often has additional items which vary depending on the particular applet. All applets should have the following items in their right-click pop-up menu: Remove from panel The Remove from panel menu item removes the applet from the Panel. Move After selecting Move, your mouse pointer will change appearance (typically to a cross with arrows in each direction). As you move your mouse, the applet will move with it. When you have finished moving the applet, click any mouse button and the applet will anchor in its current position. Note that applets can be moved between two Panels this way. Panel The Panel submenu contains various items and submenus for adding and removing Panels and applets and for changing the configuration. About The About... menu item brings up a dialogue box containing various information about the applet, typically including the applet's name, version, author, copyright, license and desciption. Help The Help menu item brings up the help manual for the applet. Many applets have customizable properties. These applets will have a Properties... menu item in their right-click pop-up menu which brings up the Properties dialog where you can alter the appearance or behaviour of the applet.

An Example Applets Properties Dialog

All Properties dialogs have the following buttons at the bottom of the dialog: OK — Pressing OK will activate any changes in the properties you have made and close the Properties dialog. Apply — Pressing Apply at any time will make your changes active without closing the Properties dialog. This is helpful if you would like to test the effects of the changes you have made but may want to continue changing the properties. Close — Pressing Close will close the Properties dialog. Only changes in the configuration which were previously applied with the Apply button will persist. Other changes will not be made active. Help — Pressing Help brings up the manual for the application, opening it to the page describing the Properties dialog. Many applets also have one or more of the following items in their right-click pop-up menu: Run... The Run... menu item generally invokes a program which is related to the applet in some way but which runs in its own window rather than in the panel. For example: The CPU Load applet, which monitors what programs are running, has a Run gtop... menu item. Selecting this menu item starts GTop, which allows you to view and control programs which are running. The CD Player applet has a Run gtcd... menu item which starts the GNOME CD Player when selected, which has more capabilities than the applet. GNOME users are encouraged to report bugs to The GNOME Bug Tracking System. The easiest way to submit bugs is to use the Bug Report Tool program by selecting Main Menu Utilities Bug Report Tool . Be sure to be complete in describing what you did to cause the bug to surface and, if possible, describe how the developer can reproduce the the scenario. GNOME users are welcome to provide suggestions for how applications and documentation can be improved. Suggestions for application changes should be submitted using the Bug Report Tool discussed above. Suggestions for documentation changes can be emailed directly to the documentation author (whose email should be included in the "Authors" section of the document) or by sending an email to docs@gnome.org. GNOME is a community project, created by hundreds of programmers, documentation writers, icon design artists, web masters, and other people, most of whom work on a volunteer basis. New GNOME contributors are always welcome. To join the GNOME team, visit these web sites: developers — The GNOME Development Site, documentation writers — The GNOME Documentation Project, icon design artists — Gnome Icon Web, general — Helping GNOME, or just join the gnome-list email list (see GNOME Mailing Lists) to discuss what you are interested in doing. &TEMPLATE-APPLET ]]> GNOMEAPPLET applet, shown in , does this and that. To learn how to add this applet to a Panel, see .

GNOMEAPPLET

This applet does nothing. To use it, just left-click on it and it will instantly do nothing. In addition to the standard menu items (see ), the right-click pop-up menu has the following items: Properties... — This menu item opens the Properties dialog (see ) which allows you to customize the appearance and behavior of this applet. Run Hello World... — This menu item starts the program Hello World, used to say "hello" to the world. You can configure GNOMEAPPLET applet by right-clicking on the applet and choosing the Properties... menu item. This will open the Properties dialog, shown in .

Properties Dialog

To change the color of the applet, click on the color button. To change other properties, click on other buttons. For more information on the Properties dialog, including descriptions of the OK, Apply, Cancel, and Help buttons, see . There are no known bugs in the GNOMEAPPLET applet. This applet was writen by HACKER-NAME HACKER-EMAIL. The documentation for this applet which you are reading now was written by YOUR-NAME YOUR-EMAIL. For information on submitting bug reports and suggestions for improvements, see . ]]>