<div dir="ltr"><div><div>I'd agree - a reference manual seems like a much more easily reached target. I myself would prefer to have a good reference available than a guided manual.<br><br></div>It would definitely make maintenance simpler, and would be easier to write since it requires less teaching and language skills than a guided manual.<br><br></div>If people still wish to write tutorials and in-depth examples, these can be done elsewhere (personal wiki pages, forums, blogs, etc) and linked to from the manual. This is already done occasionally, for example the array modifier (<a href="http://blender.org/manual/modifiers/generate/array.html#tutorials">http://blender.org/manual/modifiers/generate/array.html#tutorials</a>) links to some external resources.<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 24 January 2015 at 08:56, Campbell Barton <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ideasman42@gmail.com" target="_blank">ideasman42@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">It was suggested by @el_diablo that we might consider restricting the<br>
manual to being a reference manual.<br>
<br>
see:<br>
<a href="http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?360263-Blender-User-Manual-Official-Call-for-Help!&p=2803818&viewfull=1#post2803818" target="_blank">http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?360263-Blender-User-Manual-Official-Call-for-Help!&p=2803818&viewfull=1#post2803818</a><br>
<br>
This doesn't mean we have to make this simply lists of button<br>
descriptions, we should still make this text for users and give some<br>
guidance (usage info and tips).<br>
<br>
Examples of pages I'd consider reasonable for a 'reference manual'<br>
<br>
- <a href="https://www.blender.org/manual/modeling/meshes/editing/subdividing/knife_subdivide.html" target="_blank">https://www.blender.org/manual/modeling/meshes/editing/subdividing/knife_subdivide.html</a><br>
- <a href="https://www.blender.org/manual/modifiers/generate/solidify.html" target="_blank">https://www.blender.org/manual/modifiers/generate/solidify.html</a><br>
- <a href="https://www.blender.org/manual/getting_started/basics/interface/buttons_and_controls.html" target="_blank">https://www.blender.org/manual/getting_started/basics/interface/buttons_and_controls.html</a><br>
<br>
This means we wouldn't attempt anything like tutorials or howto's.<br>
<br>
The main reasons I suggest this is...<br>
<br>
- So far we only have a small group of active writers.<br>
- This is what the manual is for the mostpart anyway.<br>
- The few tutorials from the wiki were OK (at best),<br>
... Youtube, blender.stackexchange & dedicated tutorial sites are far<br>
better suited to helping users with spesific interests.<br>
- This is something developers can keep up tp date when functionality<br>
is changed, without giving us pages of text to maintain.<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
- Campbell<br>
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