User Guide - Copy editing time!

I'm pleased to announce that the User Guide has an all-but-complete first draft! (There are 3 topics that haven't been written, but they are all just about done.) So, it's time for the next phase: copy editing and testing. There were many people who, when we originally announced the User Guide project, said they were interested in helping during the editing phase -- now is your chance!

We're starting out the copy editing process with a bunch of "Fix this problem throughout the guide" issues. Each issue describes a fairly straightforward guideline to check for, and the idea is that on each issue, you would edit the entire guide so that it complies with that particular guideline (avoiding making other copy editing changes, which could interfere with other people making other changes). For example, there is one issue that is about making sure that we use the term "website" instead of "web site"; another one is about making sure the Goal section of each Task topic is written in a standard style.

If you would like to help with one of these issues, here's how:

a) Visit the User Guide project's Issues page:
https://www.drupal.org/project/issues/user_guide

b) Find an issue in the list, whose title starts with "Copy Edit:", and whose Assigned field is blank. Note: At the same time as this copy editing is starting, the Guide project organizers will also be hosting a couple of "testing" sessions, where we'll have novice Drupal users read through the guide and try out the steps in the tasks, and we'll see if anything needs attention. So, you can look for "Content Edit:" issues as well, as they are identified.

c) Click on the link for the issue, and follow the steps in the issue. The first step will be to assign the issue to yourself -- you'll need to be logged in to Drupal.org in order to do that.

d) Once you've completely finished with one of the issues, start over at (a) and find a new one to do, if you still have time.

You could also organize a small group to work on one of these issues together, such as each of 3 people editing a third of the guide.

Note: You will need to learn (or already know) how to make a "patch file" to help with these copy editing issues, and you will need to install the "Git" revision control system on your computer. There are links in each issue to instructions for this, but if you need help figuring it out, you can either leave a comment here or contact me privately, and we can set up an online chat session to help people with the mechanics.

Happy editing!

Oh, and if you want to see the User Guide as it is now, you can always find the most updated link to see it on the User Guide project page:
https://www.drupal.org/project/user_guide