re: panel docs

[John Fleck <jfleck inkstain net>]

Sasha, Dan,

This is terrific.Users will be well-served. I've got a small pile of minor
quibbles below, but overall it's a tremendously useful contribution. You've
done a good job of straightforward, step-by-step explanation of how to use
the panel.
Good job.

The quibbles:

In the Introduction:

"The GNOME Panel" has "panel" capitalized at the beginning, but the
final sentence has it lowercase.

Should "GNOME Panel" carry an application tag (sorry if it does in the sgml
- I only read the html)?

Under "Applets", "You can move between desktops and screens by
clicking with your left mouse button" might be clearer as "You can
move between desktops and screens by clicking on the applet with your
left mouse button." Or some such.

Under "Right-click menu", "Panel Submenu described below" might link
to the bit you're talking about - oops, never mind, I see it's in the
next paragraph. Still a link might be a bit of a help.

Under "Components of the main menu", I must admit that the first time
I confronted Unix, the phrase "man pages" was an opaque bit of jargon
to me. Could you call 'em "manual pages" the first time for the
benefit of new users? (This raises the tricky underlying question of
how you walk the line between being helpful to the new user
vs. pedantic overkill which might alienate those not new.)

Also same section, "the command line prompt has history buffer" should be 
"the command line prompt has *a* history buffer" and "you can recall
any of previously entered command" should be "you can recall
previously entered commands" or "you can recall any previously entered
command" or some such. 

"emacs (an extremely powerful text editor)" is a profound comment that
should be enclosed in the <reverent></reverent> tags, which I believe in 
the DocBook 4.0 stylesheets will create a glowing
aura around the words. :)

Under Configuring the main menu:
"which is the same as the one you get by using keyboard shortcut"
needs a "the" - "the keyboard shortcut"

On the theme selector paragraph, I'd add another sentence elaborating
for a new user on what it means to change a theme - a la - "Changing
the theme changes the appearance of many portions of the GTK-using
applications running on your system, from fonts to the way check boxes
appear" - something like that only more articulate. :)

Launchers:
I fear jumping into a discussion of changing a launcher's properties
may be disconcerting to a new user without at least a mention of how
to create a new launcher. Can you open this section with a reference
to adding a new applet to the panel, rather than mentioning it as an
aside in the second paragraph? (This is not a big deal, just a minor
stumble.)

Applets:
The figure doesn't match the text - you've got Tasklisk in the figure
but a clock mentioned in the text.

On the second paragraph, beginning "GNOME has many useful applets..." I'd
add 
a sentence or two more about how to add an applet - "right-click on
the panel, then choose Applet->etc..." Not a lot needed, as this is well
explained elsewhere, but for people like me who jump around and don't do
a good job of readings through....

Swallowed Applications:
"shrank" should be "shrunk," shouldn't it?

Adding objects to the panel:
"there is a number of things you can add to it" should be "there
*are*"

"there is also a number of GNOME applets available on the Internet"
should be "there *are* also a number of GNOME applets available on the
Internet" 

The following confused me in another applet doc I was writing: You
have "To add an applet, right-click on the panel and select Add to
panel->Applet from the Panel menu. 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."

This could also be, "To add an applet, right-click on the panel and
select Applets from the menu. 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's two fewer steps....

On the next paragraph, regarding adding launchers, "Panel->Add to
panel->Applet seems slightly clearer to me than "Add to
panel->Launcher from the Panel menu" 

Cheers,

-- 
John Fleck
jfleck@inkstain.net
www.inkstain.net