Write documentation for KDE

Write documentation for KDE

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As a KDE technical writer, your task is to help KDE users and contributors by writing and editing:

• wikis
• tutorials
• manuals
• API documentation

Join KDE technical writers

Skills for writing documentation
To contribute to KDE documentation, you should have: Intermediate English skills A solid understanding of the application you're documenting Back to top

Programming languages for formatting documentation
Wikis: We write the official KDE wiki pages using Mediawiki. Tutorials: Our developer tutorials use Markdown and Hugo, and are hosted on develop-kde-org. App Manuals: We use Docbook for our app manuals, which uses XML and can be converted to several other file formats easily. API Documentation: KApiDox, which uses Doxygen and Doxyqml. Back to top

The documentation process

Writing Wiki documentation steps

To contribute to the KDE wiki, read the Quick Start page. You may also want to look at the Typographical Guidelines, Tasks and Tools, and the Toolbox pages. add content first someone reviews it (note that review is not guaranteed) For discussing additions or proposed changes: use the wiki page's Discussion section collaborate with the KDE Web team create an issue on the Wikis Issue Tracker Back to top

Writing Tutorials
To write a tutorial: create a Merge Request someone reviews before it is published. If it feels overwhelming, let us know; another contributor will assist after your contribution is merged. Writing tutorials is performed in collaboration with the KDE Web team. Back to top

Writing App Manuals
To add content to an app manual: send an email to the kde-doc-english mailing list with the draft that will become the application manual. receive feedback on your work contributors will help you get the new content formatted, edited and polished. When the Docbook is finished, your manual is added to the project's repository on KDE GitLab. Back to top

Writing API Documentation

To contribute to API documentation: read the KApiDox readme. You need some programming knowledge to figure out what the code does. Take a look at Doxygen's special commands and the Frameworks Documentation Policy to have an idea of what can be used for documenting API. It is important that you do NOT change the API itself unless you know it is harmless (like changing the name of a function parameter). The documentation and development teams manage technical writing. Back to top

Documentation mentorship
If you're looking for guidance, these mentors can help: Burkhard Lück (lueck at hube-lueck dot de) : documentation Yuri Chornoivan (yurchor at ukr dot net) : documentation Thiago Sueto (thiago dot sueto at kde dot org) : wikis, tutorials and API docs volunteer to mentor! Add your name here If you need additional guidelines, refer to the the KDE Documentation Primer Back to top

How to contribute to the Documentation team

Follow these steps: KDE Bugtracker Create a KDE Bugtracker account Find Documentation bugs. Solve Documentation bugs. Resolve Documentation bugs KDE GitLab Create an Identity account Use your Identity account details to log in to KDE GitLab Find and solve issues at Documentation GitLab Join KDE technical writers KDE Phabricator Use your Identity Log in details to log in to KDE Phabricator Navigate to the Documentation Workboard Complete Documentation tasks Join KDE technical writers Back to top

Summary: As a KDE technical writer, you help KDE users and contributors. Your tasks include writing and proofreading wikis, tutorials, manuals and API documentation. Intermediate English proficiency is required. MediaWiki, Markdown, Docbook and other formatting languages are used to format pages. However, there is Graphical User Interface for using these languages; you don’t have to learn Markdown, MediaWiki if you don’t want to.

To start contributing, you need a KDE Identity account. Work happens on KDE GitLab, KDE Phabricator, and KDE Bugs.

Contact the KDE Documentation team
Reach out via the following channels: IRC: #kde-docs channel on Matrix or Libera Chat written discussion is held over the kde-doc-english mailing list For the KDE Web Team IRC: #kde-www channel on Matrix or Libera Chat written discussion is held over the kde-www mailing list

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