Writing for DocBook using the wiki

This page describes specific issues with using the Wiki to write tutorials or chapters for larger works of documentation intended for publication, such as Docs.


 * See the page on WikiEditing for general information on how to start writing on this Wiki.
 * Technical content markup is covered in WikiEditing.

The main purpose of the additional guidelines provided here is to help ensure that it is easy for your draft documents to be converted into DocBook. The Fedora Project uses DocBook for master copies of documentation.

Working with a draft document:

Golden Rule
Treat other people's documents as you would have them treat your own.

Just like with CVS access, anyone in the DocWritersGroup has full access to edit anything in the Docs/ tree. If you are going to do anything major to another writer's document, check with him/her first.

Create Each Page with the Full Name
To create a page, type in the address of the page to be created, for example

http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/My_New_Page

This creates the page. This is a different page to, and MediaWiki does not relate the two in any way.

For the same reason, you must always use the full name of your page when creating links to it from elsewhere in this Wiki.

To create draft documentation for the Documentation Project, add it to Category:Draft documentation by putting the text  at the bottom of the page.

Use One Wiki Page per Chapter or Tutorial
Each Wiki page will become a single XML file when exported to DocBook. Our DocBook usage is this:


 * One book = one parent file that calls in all prefaces, chapters, and appendixes
 * One chapter = one file
 * One section = one within a file
 * One article/tutorial = one file containing one or more sections

To follow this example in the Wiki:


 * One book = one parent Wiki page that is a Table of Contents of all the chapter pages
 * One chapter = one Wiki page, with one or more sections
 * One section = one part of a Wiki page marked by the  around the title
 * One article/tutorial = one Wiki page containing one or more sections.

For example:


 * -- the book has a table of contents
 * -- a chapter within the book

For drafts, put them in your personal sandbox, for example:



Start with a Summary
Start the main page of the document with a summary block. The summary block provides basic information about the document to readers and potential contributors. The summary remains constant even as the contents of the document change. Filling in the summary block also helps you, by clarifying the scope and purpose of your document.

Select the Show Raw Text option from the More Actions drop-down list on the sidebar, and copy all of the text between the START and END lines to the top of your document.

Fill in the summary block with the details of your document. See the summary blocks of existing draft documentation  for examples.

START OF SUMMARY

Documentation Summary:

Purpose:

Audience:

Assumptions:

Related Documents:

Lead Writer:

END OF SUMMARY

Here are explanations of each section:

Purpose: A brief summary of what the document explains or describes.

Audience: The people that you expect will benefit from reading the document. Describe their circumstances, rather than attempting to categorise them. "Users who wish to run a Web server on their Fedora system" is a good audience description, "administrators" or "developers" are too vague.

Assumptions: Specify the initial conditions of the system, and any prerequisites for the reader. You should always assume a default Fedora installation (specify the relevant installation types - Desktop, Workstation, Server), and describe how to install any additional software required in the document itself. The other important assumption to specify is the state of the account that the reader has on the system - in most cases the correct assumption is that the reader has an account with the default settings. Always specify if the reader requires the  password for the system.

Related Documents: Other documents on this Wiki or published on the Web that you think are relevant to your document. In particular, list related Fedora Documentation Project and Linux Documentation Project documents that you are aware of. This section helps to minimise duplication of effort, as well as providing a useful set of references.

Lead Writer: Your Wiki User Names into valid links. Once a Wiki page has been exported to DocBook these links become invalid. For this reason, write all links to other pages and websites in your documents as external links - with a complete URL on a separate line from the main text.

For example, write links to the ["FAQ"] on this Wiki as:


 * http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAQ

Follow the Style Guidelines
The Fedora Documentation Guide provides a chapter on good writing style:


 * DocsProject/StyleGuide

These guidelines not only benefit your readers directly, but they also assist collaborators, editors, and the translators that convert the original documents into other languages.

Exceptions to Wiki Markup Rules

 * Do not indent admonitions
 * Do not indent code blocks
 * Do not indent tables (admonitions)

Further Information

 * Help For Beginners introduces the concepts of the Fedora Wiki
 * Help On Editing describes the markup used by MediaWiki
 * Fundamentals of technical documentation in the Fedora Documentation Guide
 * Composition tips in the Fedora Documentation Guide
 * Fedora Documentation Project