Contributing to the GNOME Documentation Project
Writing documentation can be a great way to build the free and open source community, discover how free software is created and meet the people who make it happen. There are different ways in which you can help, depending on your level of technical knowledge. Here are some different things to do to get started:
Join the team on Matrix
The team generally hangs out in the #docs:gnome.org room. See the Contact page and join us!
Pick a task to work on
You can start by fixing issues in documentation. Some known issues are already reported in our issue tracking system GitLab.
Desktop Help issues are filed under the gnome-user-docs project in Gitlab
Read the project-specific instructions in Contributing to the Desktop Help
Pick an existing application
All documentation issues in Gitlab should be labeled as User Docs (issues for newcomers), or Developer Docs
Either way, you'll want to do a git checkout of the application you're going to work on and submit a merge request with your changes.
Set up your testing environment
The easiest way to test the Shell and applications is by using GNOME OS. You can use the GNOME Nightly Flatpak repository to install nightly builds of GNOME applications.
The Documentation Team only maintain documentation for the current release, so you need to be able to test the latest and greatest applications, which are very rarely provided by distributions.
Start using the git version control
You will need to clone the git repository of the project that you want to work on and learn some git basics - the easiest way is to submit a merge request using git. The GNOME git wiki page has everything that you will need to set up git and how to create a patch when you are ready. (Depending on the Linux distribution you use, you may have to install git).
Pro Git is a great resource, and explains everything that you are ever likely to come across.
Help is usually in the help/C/ repository inside the project.
Write in Mallard
Mallard is an XML markup language which is used to write help. If you are familiar with XML, you should be able to pick up Mallard as you go along. Otherwise, have a look at the Mallard guides.
Write, Write, Write
See DocumentationProject/Guide for style guides, licenses, how to (not) make screenshots, etc.
And spellcheck.
Create merge requests
Have your contributions reviewed by creating merge requests.
Do not be surprised if your are asked to improve your first contribution many times: this is quite normal and you should expect to have fewer changes to make as you improve.
Have fun!
This may sound like a lot of stuff - but once you get set up a lot of it will come to you, and practice makes perfect.
