The Handbook
Submitted by awillkey on February 4, 2010 - 5:21pm.
Tagged:
I know it's far more fun writing new code, but is there any chance the handbook could cover all the program features? For example, I can't find anything in the handbook that explains any of the plugins, whether they need ot be separately installed or are pre-loaded. I was looking because I thought I would try out "Create Chord Chart" and all I got was
"Error loading plugin. ".../MuseScore 0.9/plugins" line 53: TypeError: Result of expression 'cursor.add' [undefined] is not a function" and I suspect this is not what is supposed to happen, but then I can't be sure :-) I also tried "Break every X measures" which didn't produce an error popup - but didn't seem to do anything else either and I have no way of knowing if this was because I didn't use it properly.
A handbook should describe, at a minimum, every menu option, what it does and how to use it.
The handbook is in wiki mode. Your contribution is welcome. The code is available as well.
You got errors with MuseScore 0.9.6 beta1 or 0.9.5 ?
0.9.6 beta 1.
So if I wanted to add to the handbook, where is the link?
In the future, plugins will have their proper page and so their proper documentation. So I would propose not to write anything in the handbook regarding plugins for the moment. For anything else, the handbook is the right place. Read the administer guidelines for help.
OK, I've had a quick look at the links but there is still a big problem. I think the contents page need to be extended and I don't see any way to do that.
At the moment the contents are arranged by function, but in my wiew there should also be a reference section which lists every single menu option and keyboard shortcut (where this is not a menu option) and goes step by step though every operation that results. IN this way nothing is missed. But there is no "Edit" tab on the contents list. This means it is impossible to introduce a new topic into the handbook. For example, off the top of my head, the following topics are not in the current contents and are not subtopics of existing topics:
Transposing,
All the topics hidden under "Edit General Style"
So how can a new topic be introduced?
You don't see the edit tab on the handbook page? Or on any menu/handbook page?
I believe I reproduced the problem with the not-displayed edit tab. It should be fixed now, not?
See: http://musescore.org/handbook Do you see the edit tab?
Yes I see it now. I didn't see it last night. Thanks.
While on the subject of the handbook, would it be possible to have a search handbook option on the website? The "search this site" option will find references to the handbook, but lost in amongst all the forum messages on the same topic, for example searching for multi measure rests does not bring up a single handbook reference in the first page of results and I don't know if that's because it isn't in the handbook or because I have to go through 26 pages of search results to find it.
I think this is very important.
Regards.
On the search result page, you will see a block at the left with 'Filter by type'. When you click on the 'Book page', it will yield only search results from the handbook.
The fact that you haven't seen this filter yet means that the UI of this website needs some work, or at least the search results page. If anyone can create a wireframe/mockup, I'll be glad to implement it.
Update: See attachement: no filtered search vs filtered search
Well, thanks for this. Its there but I never thought to use it. Much better.
Don't worry about the UI. I can see it. The significance just hadn't registered.
The plugins are broken in the beta (see 4190 and 4338). That is why you are getting errors (not because you are using it incorrectly). Most of the plugins are simple experiments/demos and very straight forward to use. It might be a good idea to mention the "Break every X measures" plugin on the Break or spacer page or the "ABC import" on a file formats page.
Having a page that lists all the menu functions and links to the appropriate page in the handbook is fine, but I don't think we should reorder the whole handbook to fit the menu structure of MuseScore. The idea is that a person who doesn't know where to look for a certain function in the software can easily find it in the handbook.
There are lots of areas that are not documented. Help writing these is welcome.
"Most of the plugins are simple experiments/demos and very straight forward to use. It might be a good idea to mention the "Break every X measures" plugin on the Break or spacer page or the "ABC import" on a file formats page."
I'd like to propose another solution which will be a lot easier to maintain.
I created a plugin page for ABC at http://musescore.org/project/abc As you will see, it's tagged with an 'import' label. So instead of linking individually to import/export plugins, you can link to this label which will show you a list of all the plugins concerning import.
Using this label link instead of individual links will put less stress on handbook maintenance and translation.