GSoD FAQ

The Audacity audio editor is downloaded around 18 million times each year. It's a large, mature and clearly popular open source project. In 2008 and 2009 we participated in Google's Summer of Code, taking 7 students in all. For Google Season of Documentation 2019 we would like to mentor one technical writer.

How do you currently document Audacity?

• We have two wikis:
  • This wiki for all kinds of information
  • Our wiki for the manual.

Can you say more about the manual?

• The manual is 90% a reference, organised in terms of features of the program.
• The manual contains some annotated/clickable screenshots and a sidebar to help navigation.
• We have scripts to collect the manual, we distribute a copy with Audacity, and help buttons in Audacity link to many of the pages.

Can you say more about this general wiki?

• It's a rag bag of miscellaneous information, and that's fine. That's what it is for.
• It does have some organisation for potential contributors.

'Is that everything?

• Nope. The forum is pretty important for user questions, and we have a feedback email address which is active too.
  • We often refer people to the FAQ in the manual from these.
• There is a somewhat experimental 'what is that?' page which repackages the manual in a more visual/interactive format.
• Our main website has some information about audacity as a project too.
• Developers will look in our source code for code documentation and building instructions.

What experience do your mentors and admins have?

• (Mentor) Peter - Principle writer and maintainer on the manual
• (Mentor) James - Audacity developer, does some writing about new features. Works on templates and automation that (should) reduce work in images and tables.
• (Admin) Steve - Audacity developer, writes some tutorials. Very active answering user questions on the Audacity forum.
• (Admin) Buanzo - Our Sysadmin. Helps users with FFmpeg and LAME Audacity plug-ins.

What previous experience has Audacity had in documentation or collaborating with technical writers?

What previous experience has Audacity had mentoring individuals?

What editorial principles do you have?

• Consistency in Audacity Manual