WikiConference India 2016/Submissions/Improvement of Wikibook and PDF-rendering features.

Abstract

The Book Creator software has been crippled since it was rebuilt in 2014, the management process is inactive, and no fixes are in sight.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Books/Feedback. So I want improvement of the feature. That will be helpful for the students. RIT RAJARSHI (talk) 06:08, 14 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Details

Here I post, the problems that I faced as user, and ways of solution I think.

*1.  When the book is open, but not under edit in book-creator (eg. edits just saved) ; the pages/links are allowed to clicked to add (+’d ), shows signs as-if they are successfully added; but they actually doesn’t get added in the book. Even after  opening   book-creator and several reloads, they doesn’t appear. The only way to include them, is remembering those articles, then clicked to remove (-’d) , then starting edit with book creator; then adding (+) the pages again.
So , successful inclusion of links into the book, ( when-ever and where-ever the options   for add (+) and  remove (-)  page is available.) could be ensured.
*2.  After adding a link (while editing is on) each time, it need to Reload the page.  
the new-entries could be included automatically, without reload.
*3.  On clicking  remove (-) icon on links/pages,  the respective page on book are so easily getting deleted. So, erroneous or accidental click on remove (-) icon on pages, often deletes important pages.  
So,  so-easy deletion of entries, could be locked.  at-least 2 warnings could be shown, and an option to “turn off” the page removal button, could be provided.  On the book,  a trace of pages deleted (from outside/inside the book.) , could be recorded. 
*4. While re-ordering the pages on book, I need to drag the heading (sometimes scrolling) ; across all-other headings(page-names) . That  confuses where to place the heading.  Also, when the mouse fails to drag accurately,  some-other heading get  scrambled and misplaced. That is terrible.  
(Surprisingly, I’m seeing, book-creator can recognize dragging error, and place such wrongly-dragged page-name into the initial zone. However, sometimes it  acts on correct-drags also. )
So, a simple, effective remedy could-be taken: Please provide all the new-entries on a separate,  Side- Palette.  They could be scrolled separately. Then we could scroll the existing book-content to  find the proper place, & then click-and-drag the respective  new-entry into proper-place of the  book.  This-will help to avoid scrolling through so-many headings(page-names). , by providing a by-pass.
*5.  There are also many-other problems with Click-and-drag. 

i.  The page-names, often change their place automatically. Causes  I don’t know. 

ii. The page-names, change their place automatically, if I replace a page-name    >1 times on a single edit-session.

iii. While dragging 1 page-name, sometimes,     >1 page-names get moved, simultaneously.  Causes I don’t know.
So , automatic place-changing of chapter-names could be stopped.
If this is caused by problems with temporary auto-save ( … I guess), then there is a simple way. 

Instead of  temporary-auto-save, use temporary-manual-save.  option could be provided like  “lock it” or “Stepple it” or “pin it” or such, that is to be manually selected by user. 
Once placed, if the user again wants to change place of a page-name, the user must have to manually select an option like “unlock it” or “remove stepple” etc. Thus, the computer/server will easily understand, which-one change is done by the user. Thus, the automatic    dance of the chapters could be avoided.

Before proceed to change place of another  page-name, user must-have to Lock the the previous page-name.

Also, several-pages (under a chapter-heading) could be “grouped” manually, so-that all-the pages in a chapter, stay together. If someone want to move a whole chapter (with all its pages,  maintaining sequence), this “manual” grouping would help.
By this way, usually, I don’t need the “arrange alphabetically” option. More-over,  accidental/ erroneous click on this option can destroy months or years of labor to re-order. So,  an option to turn-Off this option,  and  warnings, could be kept.
*6. Many copies of the same book, generated.   There are 2 folders/drives to save the books.  They often become different.
So, it is to be ensured, while saving the last-edit, both-copies get updated simultaneously and automatically. Warning, if I  start edit an old-version. Whether I’m editing on latest revision, could be notified   conflicts in recent edits, could be shown,     specially, if  there are  some-pages more  in older-versions, those are absent in newer version. 
*7.  Some informations  such-as  book-descriptions, problems(bug command), copyleft cover etc. doesn’t get saved after few-edits. They’re to be set again and again.
They could be automatically recorded in the next edits.
*8.  Tables and some images don't get correctly included in the PDF renderer. 
So, they could-be included by improving the software.
*9.  Diagrams and other-kind of labelled images, could be rendered in larger size; if necessary, instead of fit into 1 (of 2 ) columns, could be rendered throughout the width of the page (without changing the aspect ratio).

About this participant

Links to my user-page and talk page RIT RAJARSHI (talk) 06:08, 14 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Plus points of this participant:

1. User of Wikipedia and Wikimedia, could tell about difficulties experienced on Wikipedia.
2. Interested in improvement of Wikipedia. Respects the mission of making all the educational content freely available to everyone.

Minus point of this user

1. This user access internet from a desktop (Home PC) . Do-not have any laptop or smartphone or such portable gadget for internet.
2. This user can't access internet all-the-time. Because this user have study and other-works to do; and don't always have internet balance. So often can't receive/ respond to notifications on time.
3. This user knows a very very little about computer programing (that's too-much insufficient to develop or diagnose a software). Even handles Wiki-code with a much effort.
4. This user have no idea of "hackathons" advertised.
5. This user sometimes fail to properly notice and understand verbal instructions, especially, where to tell, where to go, where to click, and this type of instructions. Have some trouble in inter-personal communication, especially on phone calls and face-to-face talks.

Any Feedback from Wikipedia authority?

Interested attendees and comments

தமிழ்க்குரிசில் (talk) 06:35, 20 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]