Thank you for pointing this out. I don't know what's the process here..

Firstly, decide whether you want to write the user manual yourselves or ask the Gnome Documentation Project to do it.

If you do it yourselves, there's a style guide you need to be aware of (or at least, the basic elements of it, as it's a big document). You can ask the GDP to review what you produce if you like.

If you want the GDP to do it, see http://live.gnome.org/DocumentationProjectPolicies, and also bear in mind that we'll still need some help from you, such as explaining all the nifty features of the app that aren't immediately obvious.

Instructions on setting this up are now here: http://live.gnome.org/GnomeDocUtilsCreateNew

(I haven't made a new template for applets yet, just use the app one for now.)

I would appreciate if someone from the GDP could step up and write the docs. I can offer any assistance in documenting obscure things.

I'll ask on the docs list.

In the meantime, could you get the manual set up in CVS?
It would also be useful if you could provide a quick list of what deskbar can be used for. I'm looking at http://raphael.slinckx.net/deskbar/ but it seems to be more aimed at coders, and I can't work out which of the features under 'Backends' are in by default and which require extras.

I setup the stuff in CVS according to the link you gave me. There is only one thing i don't know how to fill, it's the deskbar.omf.in thing i left some '?' where i don't know what to write, if you can help out..

As for the features I think everything needing to be explained is in the preferences panel (right-click).

You can also left-click on the icon to get a history of the recently used actions.

Maybe it's easier if the documentation writer plays a bit or is familiar with deskbar so that i don't have to explain *everything* but just fill/explain the missing bits ?

The plugins enabled in a default install are :
History = allow to search through the deskbar's history to reuse previous searches easily.
Programs = allow to launch a program in your $PATH or found in a .desktop file
Evolution = allow to type name or email and search in evo's addressbook
WebAddress = allow to type a www address and launch the browser on it
FileFolder = allow to type a filename relative to ~ or absolute and open it
*Bookmarks = index and allow to search in your brower's bookmarks and open it
*SmartBookmarks/SearchEngines = index and allow to use the search engine/smart bookmark feature of the browser (example: search for xxx in Google)

* These work only with firefox 1.5 (not 2.0) and with epiphany

Let me know if you need more !

You can get a list of available categories from:
http://scrollkeeper.sourceforge.net/documentation/categories.html

I'd suggest "GNOME|Applets|Utility" for the category.

For the "holder", You'd need to confirm with shaunm, but if its the doc team, it should probably be "GDP" or "GNOME Documentation Project".

That's fine for me. I guess whoever commits the doc can adapt the fields to the right value.

  * C/deskbar.xml: 
    copied over the new applet manual template from gnome-doc-utils
    made the necessary substitutions
    written Introduction 
  * C/figures/deskbar-applet.png: applet screenshot
  * deskbar.omf.in: added category and holder

Raphael, could you add the required details to the 'About Deskbar' section please?  Look for 'deskbar-about' in C/deskbar.xml.
Could you also confirm the default view is the button?
Also, could you give me or tell me where to find in source the human-visible names of the plugins please? I'm not seeing the Evolution plugin, but I do have things like Yahoo and Delicious listed.

I've been playing with Deskbar and I find it... weird.

Created attachment 78087 [details]
Screenshot for the docs

Don, I'm having the same problem adding images to CVS as the other day.

Could you (or anyone in fact) add this & make the necessary changes to the makefiles etc please?

Never mind that last comment, got it working :)

* Completed the about-deskbar section
* Default view *is* button view
* Human-visible name: look for files in deskbar/handlers/*.py You should see the HANDLERS dictionary there is a key called "name" and "description" which is what the user will see in the configuration box.

I hope this helps, and thanks for the docs !

*** Bug 500790 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I just committed newly written documentation written by Qing Gan and Phil Bull.