Revamping the help

Gentlemen and ladies (we do have some on this list, don't we?),

The time has come. Fire's collection of help files have to be redone,
because in the last year, almost everything has changed. Many of the
files we currently ship are more than outdated, they are flat-out
wrong. In order to have a real 1.0 release we can be proud of, the help
needs to be brought up to date, and that essentially means it must be
rewritten and greatly expanded.

Toward that end, I have come up with an outline for the new help. I
based it roughly on the iTunes help (which is quite good) and the
guidelines I found here:

http://tinyurl.com/278zt

The next step is to flesh out this outline and then divvy up the
sections so I don't have to write it all myself. :-)

Your comments are greatly appreciated. If you've got an interest in a
certain category, let me know so I can coordinate people and get you
some template files (those will be changing too).

Let's get this show on the road so we can ship!

-Nick


New Fire help outline
---------------------

Adding buddies to Fire
    About buddies
    About the Buddies list
    Adding a buddy to the Buddies list
    Adding a chat room to the Buddies list
    Removing buddies from the Buddies list
Adding accounts to Fire
    About services
    About accounts
    Adding an account (explain auto-login here...)
    Removing an account
    Connecting to an account (or perhaps here.)
Chatting with buddies
    Opening a chat with a buddy
    Opening a group chat with several buddies at once
    Changing the font of text
    Using graphical smileys
    Sending a file to a buddy
    Storing chat sessions (Cmd-S, log all messages)
    Viewing previously stored chat sessions
    Checking your spelling
    Filtering profanity
Managing chat sessions
    Finding out about a new message (window pulsing, dock icon blinking,
      convo browser, sounds)
    Reviewing current chat sessions
        (convo browser, Dock menu, Windows menu, Cmd-left/right)
    Blocking messages from non-buddies (explain why [spam], explain how
        and any workarounds)
    (There must be more here...)
Setting audio notifications
    About audio notifications (global, can be overridden)
    About speech (our implementation of speech, caveats [can't adjust
        volume of the voice])
    Setting an audio notification
    (There must be more here...)
Using status messages
    About status messages
    About the idle status message (why there's only one, what it does)
    Viewing a buddy's status message
    Creating or modifying a status message
    Removing a status message
    Using a temporary status message
    Going idle (time limit, idle status message used, idle with away 
        message if you were already away [right?])
Managing buddies
    About profiles
    About blocking (differences btw services)
    Viewing a buddy's profile and information
    Creating or modifying your profile
    Adding a group to the Buddies list
    Removing a group from the Buddies list
    Changing a buddy's group
    Blocking or unblocking a buddy
Translating chat sessions
    (Alan, would you like to fill this out? Is this topic big enough for
    its own category, or should it go under "Chatting with buddies"?)
Encrypting chat sessions
    About GPG
    (There's more here, I'm sure... adapt current documentation)
    Using GPG to sign and encrypt chat sessions
Changing Fire's appearance
    About themes
    Getting different themes
    Adding and activiating a theme
    Making windows transparent
    (More schtuff about the BL color options)
    (Graham and/or Jason, your input please...)
Shortcuts and tips
    Keyboard shortcuts
    Tips and tricks (ideas?)
    Hidden options (questionable)
Troubleshooting (time to cut down traffic to fire-core!)
    I can't connect to a specific account or service
    Some buddies that are online don't show up in my list
    (There must be more here...)

-- 
Nick Kocharhook  --  <avpx-y3TqMmYvUjih/[email protected]> -- Rot-13


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