Task Help

Task Help

Task-help is a type of help document focussed at new users (new users and those not interested in learning the details and specifics of the operating system operation.

At the moment there is a lack of documents of this type. The existing document types (HOWTOs, man, info, application-specific, etc.) are not written for new users, and are often cryptic or require a knowledge of the operating system that new users do not have.

What?

A complete set of requirements has not been developed. Some of the possible requirements for task-help are:

Short and to the point.
Written in simple language.
Written in a stepwise fashion so that they may be easily performed.

Requirements

Currently there is no set format for writing task-help. See the samples section (below) for some possibilities.

Writing Task-help

At this point there have been no task-help documents specifically written for the SEUL system. Some files have been written for other desktops, however. Press here to see them.

Samples

Following is a list of topics which may be needed for a task-help system. Note that no task-help files have been written for the SEUL as of yet. As topics are covered, they will be marked as completed.

Some documents have been written for (potentially) non-SEUL systems. These files may be found here. Some are also displayed below. Included in the table below are documents written for GNOME, KDE and FVWM2. Note that GNOME is currently the desktop chosen by SEUL

Window Managers

Category	Task	KWM	FVWM2
Window Management
	Changing the screen resolution
	Minimizing a Window	view	view
	Maximizing a Window	view	view
	Closing a Window	view	view
	Opening an Xterm	view	view
	De-iconifying a Window	view	view

Applications

Note: Whenever possible the actual program which performs the tasks are listed in the applicable category.

Category	Task	GNOME	KDE
Help		gnome-help-browser	kdehelp
	Starting Help Browser
Desktop Management		GMC	kfm
	Making shortcuts
	Changing desktop colours
	Adding shortcuts to the desktop
	Setting the Screensaver Properties	view
	Setting the Background Properties	view
Panel Management		panel	kpanel
	Adding applications to the toolbar	view
	Removing a button from the toolbar
	Moving the panel	view	view
File Management		gmc	kfm
	Running the file manager	view
	Copying a file
	Removing a file
	Moving a file
	Opening a folder	view	view
	Creating a folder		view
		view	view
	Removing a folder	view	view
	Move folder to trash		view
	Finding a file
	Undeleting a file
	Editing a text file	view	view
	Viewing a file	view
	Viewing an image		view
Application management
	Running a program
	Opening an xterm
Dial Up Networking			kppp

Hardware
	Bell Properties	view	view
	Keyboard Properties	view	view
	Mouse Properties	view	view
Multimedia
	CD player	view	view
	Audio mixer	view view	view view
	Midi player		view
	Wave player		view
	Karaoke player		view
Utilities
	Calculator	view	view
	Hex Editor	view	view

Distribution Specific

Note: Whenever possible the actual program which performs the tasks are listed in the applicable category.

Category	Task		RedHat	Debian
Software
	Installing new programs
	Uninstalling programs
	Listing installed applications

Unclassified

Note: It is unsure at this point under which of the above categories (or new category) the following should belong. Obviously most will eventually make it into the Application section, however the specifics have not been determined yet.

Category	Task
Hardware
	Installing/changing a...
	...Keyboard
	...Modem
	...Monitor
	...Mouse
Networking
	Dial-up networking
	Joining a UNIX network
	TCP/IP
	IPX
	SMB
	NFS
Application Specific Tasks
	Sending a fax
	Word processing
	Email
	Simple text editting
	Edit web page
	Balanceing a chequebook
	Getting and playing doom
	Inserting a formula into a TEX document
	Sending a picture/graph via email
	Printing
	Logging out
	Shutting down
	Rebooting

Topics