VOICE Newsletter FAQ

Last update: July 6, 2008

Contents

0. General

0.1 Why do you do this?
0.2 This looks like a lot of work. Do you get any compensation?
0.3 VOICE is an OS/2 user group. Do I have to be a member to be “allowed” to help?

1. What can I do to help?
1.1 What kind of work is there to do?
1.2 What kind of articles do you want?
1.3 What's the matter with sponsoring?

2. I would like to help, but...
2.1 ... where are the articles that have to be edited or translated?
2.2 ... I don't know about all these file formats.
2.3 ... I don't have the time to contribute regularly.
2.4 ... I'm not capable of translating articles.

3. Organizational
3.1 How is work on the Newsletter organized?
3.2 How do I access an article?
3.3 What do all those directories on the FTP-Server mean?
3.4 What is the work-flow for an article like?
3.5 How do I send a message to the mailing list?
3.6 What are the files with the def suffix for?
3.7 What is required to build the Newsletter?
3.8 How is the Newsletter built?

4. Things to note
4.1 Page headers and footers
4.2 Issues with editors
4.3 Formatting
4.4 Translating "you"
4.5 Apostrophe usage

5. Tips
5.1 Dictionaries
5.2 HTML validation
5.3 Comparing files

0. General

0.1 Why do you do this?

To create a monthly information resource for OS/2.

0.2 This looks like a lot of work. Do you get any compensation?

No, all team members contribute voluntarily. What you get in return is being able to read articles several weeks before they are published, and the thanks of people who wouldn't have anything to read otherwise (or their complaints ;-) ). Also, the authors don't get paid either.

0.3 VOICE is an OS/2 user group. Do I have to be a member to be "allowed" to help?

No. Many team members aren't VOICE members. Unless you are a member of the "Death to OS/2, long live Windows!" club, you are welcome to join.

1. What can I do to help?

You can

1.1 What kind of work is there to do?

1.2 What kind of articles do you want?

Please see our Guidelines for submissions to the VOICE Newsletter

1.3 What's the matter with sponsoring?

Of course, this is a bit tricky, because we have to ensure that the money or whatever reaches its destination and is used for what you want it to be used. As an alternative for money, e.g., software licenses or hardware could be used.

If you want to support us, you can do the following:

2. I would like to help, but...

2.1 ... where are the articles that have to be edited or translated?

On the VOICE FTP server. To access them, an account is required. If you really want to help, send an e-mail to editor@os2voice.org and you'll receive user ID and password later.

2.2 ... I don't know about all these file formats.

No problem. You can also do your work based on plain text files. We recommend NVU. The Newsletter's layout inside the article body is quite plain and usually you should be able to use NVU without problems. Be careful however, that no absolute paths (e.g. C:\HTML\VOICE\feature_3.html) creep in. Somebody else will do the rest.

2.3 ... I don't have the time to contribute regularly.

That doesn't matter. If you do have time, take a look at our task assignment web page and choose an article for editing.

2.4 ... I'm not capable of translating articles.

That doesn't matter. There is enough other work to be done, e.g., correcting English articles, acquiring authors, and writing articles yourself.

3. Organizational

3.1 How is work on the Newsletter organized?

Of course, you have to see who is doing what. That is why we have a task assignment web page. It displays articles that need to be translated, names and e-mail addresses of their authors, as well as names and e-mail addresses of the assigned editor, and the editing or translation status. In addition, articles can be downloaded directly from here. There is a mailing list called translate@os2voice.org for communication between the team members, announcements of new articles, etc. at VOICE. After announcing your sincere willingness to contribute to editor@os2voice.org, you receive the data that is required to access the web page and are subscribed to the mailing list. More see 3.4.

3.2 How can I access the articles?

The files are located on the VOICE FTP server, which requires access accounts. After announcing your sincere will to contribute to editor@os2voice.org, you receive the data that is required to access the server.

3.3 What do all those directories on the FTP server mean?

3.4 What is the work-flow for an article like?

The editors upload new articles to the todo_* directories and enter them into the task assignment database.

If you have the time to edit or translate something, invoke the detail view for an article by clicking on the related entry on the task assignment page. A new view is displayed that allows you to take (and also cancel, if neccessary) tasks. Then download the article by clicking on the file link or directly downloading it from the FTP server. After finishing the task, upload the result to the raw_* directory on the FTP server. German articles that have been translated to English are placed in raw_english and vice versa. Add a two-digit version number to the file name. If the ZIP archive that contains the original article is called feature_2.zip, for instance, the translated one is called feature_2-00.zip. Then change the translation status on the task assignment page accordingly and send a short message to the mailing list.

Now someone else downloads the article from the raw_* directory or via the related link in the article's detail view for correction, and adds him- or herself as editor. Having finished the correction, you change the status accordingly via the assignment page and upload the result to the FTP server. The same naming scheme applies. In our example, the corrected version would be called feature_2-01.zip, since feature_2-00.zip already exists.

Besides the article itself, there is a second file to work on. It uses the .def suffix. Therein, the article title, author name and address, maybe a short author info, links etc. are specified for automatic inclusion by PPWizard. Don't forget to enter your own name and address as translator, formatter, or proofreader.

Should any questions arise during translation or correction, contact the author or the mailing list. In all cases, avoid delivering unfinished work. If something leaves you puzzled, or you don't have the time anymore, tell us.

3.5 How do I post a message to the mailing list?

Once you are subscribed, just send a message to translate@os2voice.org.

3.6 What are the files with the def suffix for?

The VOICE Newsletter is build with the help of the PPWizard pre-processor. It allows to automatically create navigation, author and translator info, and the references box. To do this, several variables have to be defined, and that's what is done in the files with the def suffix. Please don't forget to translate the article title and description. And don't forget to insert your name and address!

3.7 What is required to build the Newsletter?

First of all, building means that the final pages are generated by running PPWizard to assemble them from the editable HTML and the def files. This adds the header, the navigation, the references box, and the footer.

Required are:

To install it, do the following:

3.8 How is the Newsletter built?

The HTML version

The INF version

Updates for the VOICE web site and announcements

4. Things to note

4.1 Page headers and footers

Translating the page header and footer with links to previous and next pages each time is not required. This is done by the editors using a script. The article title, description, links, author info, and summary, however, have to be translated in the related def file.

4.2 Issues with editors

Please ensure that your HTML editor does not use absolute paths in links, e.g., C:\VOICE\März2001\feature_3.html. Futhermore, sometimes font tags are used (size, font face) which don't belong there.

4.3 Formatting

If you work on formatting, please be sure to comply to some guidelines to ensure that the Newsletter retains a consistent look.

Any comments you add should be placed in square brackets ([]) and be marked with something like "translator's note". In general, it is preferable to contact the author and change the article accordingly.

4.4 Translating "you"

This is an English to German issue. In German, things are different when you address a specific person, and when addressing an abstract one as well.

While adding a "Sir" or "Madam" and calling someone "Mr." or "Mrs." is the way to be polite when addressing a specific person whom you are not close to (no relative or friend) or whom you don't know in English, Germans have two words for "you". "Du" is used to address people you know well (relatives and friends, in some cases co-workers), while "Sie" is reserved for the rest. In any case, omitting the German term for "Mr." or "Mrs." ("Herr", "Frau") and using only the surname is considered extremely impolite. (This was different and more like the British usage earlier last century, but things have changed.) Well, we are polite, so we always use "Sie" to address our readers. The one exception is if you translate quotes from Usenet or mailing list postings where people who know each other well are involved.

If you use "you" to address an abstract person, i.e., the "you" does not mean, e.g., "Mrs. Elisabeth Stone" or "the particular reader" as in "What do you think of our new Newsletter design?", but could be replaced by "people" as in "You shall not kill", "you" is generally translated as "man". Or you can use a passive phrase.

4.5 Apostrophe usage

There is a different spelling for the Genitive in German: No apostrophe! This also applies to acronyms, where you only add a lower-case "s" to create the genitive. So it's "IBMs Betriebssystem", not "IBM's Betriebssystem". The same applies to creating the plural of acronyms. You have got "several CDs", not "several CD's".

5. Tips

5.1 Dictionairies

A good online dictionairy can be found at LEO. It also contains a number of idioms.

5.2 HTML validation

HTML Tidy, the W3C's HTML check and pretty-print tool is available at Hobbes.

5.3 Comparing files

When editing, you sometimes have to ask article authors if they agree to your changes. And there are more situations where you have to merge two slightly differring files into one. Comparing and applying changes by hand is quite tedious, so leaving that to the computer lends itself to the task. The following tools are available: