Re: Gnumeric Documentation

[Alexander Kirillov <kirillov math sunysb edu>]

Dear Thomas:
yes, you did make much progress -  thanks!

I have a number of minor comments/suggestions on the docs, which I
list below. However, there is a major thing: I'd urge you to re-think
the global organization of the manual. For example, the section
"Entering data" is very large and contains things like "copying and
mving cells", which, imho, do not belong there. Similarly, there is a
section "Strings and numbers" which contains subsections "Dates and
numbers", "editing of cells", etc. Clearly something is wrong here:
"error messages" can hardly be thought of as a subsection in "strings
and numbers". Please think about the organization - it is better to do
it now then later....

Now more detailed comments:

-we need to add description of multiple sheets: what hey are, how they
can be created, etc; also, we need to say something about sheet names
and renaming them.  

- more info is needed on file import/export - of, course, you relalize
  this yourself

- it would help to add in description of menu items <xref>'s to
  appropriate sections of the document - e.g., in descripition of
  "print", to the section on printing

- even more minor things:

 --menubar ->open 
   "Open an existing worksheet. A new window is created
   with the file selected in it." 

   Why not: this will open a dialog window where you can select a
   file. The file will be opened in a new window. 

   Also: say here about file format which can be opened. 

  --menubar -> cut, copy: "Remove the content in the currently selected cells
   and save it."
   
   Suggestion:...and save it in a special cut buffer

  --menubar ->Delete Sheet: "Select every cell in the worksheet."

    ????
  --menubar ->Unhide:
  "Makes any columns selected that have being hidden..."
                                        ^^^^^^
  Obvious typo. 
  Also: would you say more on how one can select a column if it had
  been hidden? (answer: if column B is hidden, select columns A-C)
 
  ---  Standard Width Resizes the columns back to the default width of
       6.63.
      6.63 what?

  ---- Re-Order sheets Clear the format from selected cells.

       ?????
  ---- Hide Column Header
      We do not describe what column headers are, how one
      creates/edits them anywhere else in the document... 

   ---- Plug-ins...
     Displays a list of the plugins currently installed. 

     We better say couple of wrods on what plug-ins are

   ---- "formulas" section: we need to add something like this
   "Gnumeric has a large number of built-in functions, described in
   detail in <xref ....>


  ---Absolute cell referencing

   > Cells can be referenced in the default way (relative
   > referencing), or by using absolute referening. Absolute
   > referencing means that when the cell is copied, the cell
   > reference does not change. Normally, autofilling a cell range or
   > moving cell will change its cell reference to so that it
   > maintains a relation to the original cell. With absolute cell
   > referencing this, behaviour is overridden.

   I find it difficult to follow. May I suggest:

    By default, cell referencing is relative to the current cell:
    reference A1 in a formula entered in cell B2 actually means "cell
    one row above and one column to the left of the current
    one". If you copy such a  formula to cell D4, the reference will be
    automatically converted to C3. 

    You can also use absolute referencing by prefixing a row or column
    number by $. For example, A$1 entered in cell B2 means "cell in
    the first row of the previous column"; when you copy it to cell
    D4, it will be converted to C$1. You can also use $ prefix for
    column number or for both column and row, as shown in <xref>  

--- Changing font -> TELL PEOPLE HOW TO USE THE FONT DIALOG HERE

    You can refer to docs for gfontsel (GNOME Font Selector) form
    utils package - it is almost identical to font selector widget. 



That's it for now. Thanks for doing this - it is indeed badly
needed....

sasha