Today I have just updated the unofficial manual in Comic Relief font only for now to Mk.IIII - Contents Page update to include Parental Control, plus Official Zorin Help Pages and most crucially, using hw-probe in live mode to see if your machine/s need specific drivers for hardware detected.
I have created a folder which currently has the introduction to the manual in 4 different formats, pdf, .odt, .tmdx (TextMaker), and .docx
Bitrstream Vera Sans version currently at Mk.II
Open Dyslexic font version currently at Mk.II (including Open Dyslexic.otf)
Comic Relief Mk.IIII (Comic Relief) various formats plus comic relief font here:
I've done a little bit more on the manual. It will take time, so please be patient. Currently at 28 pages in length, and felt it incumbent of me to also make users aware of other sofware installation options, using synaptic as an alternative, (and how to install it via the terminal), and also Apper as an additional alternative to Software. I was also conscious that my screenshots for the manual for 17 Beta had the 'Send Feedback' icon on the screenshots of the Dash, these have been replaced by taking screenshots of a VM of Zorin I have running inside of KDE neon running virt-manager, as I did not want users/readers to start questioning "That icon isn't on my Dash!". I have also extended the description of how Activities Overview works, including how you can drag open apps/windows to an adjacent workspace, which in turn adds an additional workspace to the right and so on, plus how to navigate between them by either using the mouse wheel, or Ctrl+ Alt+ L or R arrows (cursor keys). I aim this to be Epic - and who knows, I may even use (reluctantly) Google docs like I did for the unofficial manuals for Zorin 12 in French, German, Greek, Italian. The Spanish version was compiled by another Zorin forum member from Argentina, but cannot expect them to do it once more! It would be good to get some Portuguese, Brasilian Portuguese, and Flemish too!
Removed Apper as an alternative to Software as it is dependent upon KDE packagekit. Read somewhere that gnome-packagekit should make it run but still get "failed to get Authorisation" to install packages! I will cover it when I get round to doing KDE Plasma customisation of Zorin 17 in due course! Ho hum!
Hi everyone, Just in the nick of time for Christmas, an early Christmas present for you! Just a few notes. I have merged Section 6 on inspecting 3rd Party .deb files in the section on how to install/where to get Software etc. At the end of the main tome of Zorin 17 manual I have transferred items from the Unofficial Manual for Zorin 15 Core and ashamed to say I was flabbergasted at how poor the back end of it was! I guess it was partly because just as i had finished the unofficial manual for 15 my eldest was in Intensive Care on Life Support, just as I had started creating an unofficial manual for 15 Lite that never got finished. I am hoping that the uploads will finally make it as on first attempt, nada! Here's hoping it will stay in the cloud! One other matter, there are two elements I have not covered under Accessibility, copied from unofficial Zorin 15 manual - High Contrast Desktop, hampered by the fact that there are no longer any solid colours for backgrounds available - thanks Gnome Devs for forgetting about low-vision users! The other is 'show cursor' - this is not working in Zorin 17 and I don't know if it is due to the fact I was working on an Virtual Hard Disk installation in virt-manager, but would appreciate if someone could check this out. All files are uploading. PLEASE let me know if there are any hiccups on any items you download. A peaceful and restful Christmas to you all. And a Happy and peaceful Eid too!
Well I've reviewed my work and spotted a few errors (good job it wasn't a movie or people would have spotted continuity errors!) I need to save as a new .odt file then add screenshots of Sound and Video Apps and in recommended apps section to include Winff (video and audio file format converter) and a raft of pdf software (office applications).
Swarf, Can I suggest you include a file version and/or date in the document footer, so users can distinguish old from updated manual copies. Merry Christmas. Zab
OK, It's been a long three days, but finally I hope I have corrected the errors and out of date links that were present in the unofficial Zorin 15 manual. To save messing around with Contents pages too much and not wanting to insert Addenda in existing document, additional material has been added at the end, bits on OCR and pdf software have been taken from a 'working party' document when I was at work, when I have tried to convince other professionals that when trying to modify text books into accessible format, GNU/Linux really is the best solution. One item I have forgotten is to mention the proprietary GNU/Linux application, Qoppa (Now owned by Apryse) pdf Studio Pro - one of only two PDF Editors that support GNU/Linux, the other being Master PDF Editor. The updated versions are identified in their file title as MkII. And on the front page the date of publication/creation. The suggestion earlier that I add a footer or header on dates created margin issues and started to move images out of sync with the text! So it is finished ... for now.
I intend to produce different accessible versions, one in open dyslexic font which was a nice addition to Zorin 17 Core, and also the open source version of Comic Sans, Comic Relief. Enjoy some more!
I've just got to say that I finding it annoying that comments have been flying around, why almost 2 years late. Has anyone bothered to see how meticulous the Software Channel has been created? I cannot begin to imagine how long it took the developers to add that little drop-down box for each application, stating what version it is available in, flatpak, snap, and my favourite, APT. These things might seem trivial, but it is yet another hallmark of what makes Zorin stand out from the rest. OK, I haven't looked at the mainstream Software channels of other forks, but I still think this is an outstanding achievement. It really struck home when I added the last image to the manual:
I should also just like to point out that when I viewed the .odt file on Murena, the page numbering of pages is all corrupted. Can someone check if this happens after downloading? To save time, I created all document formats using SoftMaker Office's TextMaker 2024.
Currently preparing the Open Dyslexic font version of the Unofficial Manual. Currently at page 130 of 469 - why much bigger? Well, just as people who have Dyscalculia, like my two offspring, they need plenty of space to evaluate the information. So I have to apologise now as when I set out there were some pages I was trying to see if I could add two images together. So my deepest apologies to the Dyslexic commuinity for not going back and altering these few pages. I haven't uploaded yet obviously as only about a quarter the way through. Just waiting for a dry spell to take this little guy on his afternoon walkies!
The Open Dyslexic version of the manual is now available from here, including the Open Dyslexic Font in case downloaded to a system missing the font:
I am a bit averse to uploading the .odt file. Either my SoftMaker Office is corrupted or I have malware? Or the 'newer version' hard drive I bought of Amazon dated 2015 as date of manufacture is actually a refurb? Whilst working on the document the Title Bar of Text Maker kept disappearing out of view and mysterious Greek Letters appeared on the Title Page knocking the centralisation of my front cover 1 tab space to the right. Also line numbers have mysteriously appeared when Line Numbers is set to none in the menu ribbon! Aaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!
Agreed - I have been dabbling with Linux (off and on) for more than 20 years and I am learning something new. Love the app picks added in the last version of the manual.
