FLOSS Manuals

FLOSS Manuals is about providing quality manuals about how to use free sofware. We are a not-for-profit foundation established in Amsterdam in 2006. We are also a website (wiki), and a community of free documentation writers.

What we do

With 60% of all websites running on free software, why do only 1.7% of all computer users have free software on their desktops? The answer is simple and the Free Software Foundation has said it already :

"The biggest deficiency in free operating systems is not in the software—it is the lack of good free manuals"

FLOSS Manuals exists to provide this information to anyone, for free.

We do this through our website which is a wiki. If you are used to Wikipedia you might think FLOSS Manuals doesn't look much like a wiki. You would be right. However, the website is in fact a wiki, it is based on the very nice software called TWiki. Since we are a wiki you can read and contribute to the manuals.

READ, WRITE, REMIX

There are three basic parts to the FLOSS Manuals website - READ, WRITE, and REMIX.

In the READ section you can read manuals online or download them via PDF. Here we have arranged many manuals on how to use various free software. They are organised into software categories. Each of the manuals will help you get started and in general they cover the following:

What does the software do?
What does the software not do?
Introduction to the software's context
How to install the software
How to configure the most important elements
A basic introduction to the interface
Using the software's most important features with hands-on step by step tutorials
Where to go for more help

Through the WRITE section you can write manuals. This is the 'wiki' part of the site. You need to register for an account and then you can start contributions. Registration is required so that we can credit you with the changes you make. With FLOSS Manuals all material is licensed so that it can be used by anyone for any purpose. However we believe it is important you get the credit for the contributions you make so registration using your full name helps this process.

The REMIX section is the area which is undergoing the most on-going development. In the REMIX section you can actually make your own manuals from existing content. All chapters in the manuals are written so they are 'self contained' this means you can re-use them in other contexts. Hence we have built tools so you can remix manuals specific to your own requirements.

In REMIX you can drag chapters from existing manuals onto a template for your own manual and change the chapter names and their look-and-feel through the browser. You can then download your newly remixed manual as HTML (in a zip or tar file), which is good for including on CDs/USB sticks or reading offline. Alternatively you can export the remixed manual to a indexed PDF. Lastly, you can include the remixed manual in your own webpage or blog by cutting and pasting 5 lines of HTML.

Printed Manuals

In addition to the online free manuals, you can also buy some of the manuals through our print-on-demand service. We sell these manuals at the price it costs to print them. We make them as cheap as possible so that as many people as possible can get access to them. We don't make a cent from selling manuals.

Why Use FLOSS Manuals?

If you wish to create documentation about a free software project and you are in search of a community and documentation tool set then FLOSS Manuals is designed for you. Generally speaking, the types of projects that use FLOSS Manuals can be broken down to two paradigms:

Manuals published by FLOSS Manuals
'Official' documentation written by of software projects

Manuals published by FLOSS Manuals

If you wish to contribute to, or create, a manual published by FLOSS Manuals then you simply need to create an account and begin writing. For example, you can do this if you have found a manual linked from the READ section (http://www.flossmanuals.net/read) and decided you wish to contribute to, extend, and improve the it. This is, at the time of writing, the most common motivation for using FLOSS Manuals.

Offocial documentation of software projects

However it might be that you are working with a software development team and you are in search of a documentation platform to create the 'official' documentation. In this case FLOSS Manuals offers you a repository to create your own manual and manage it yourself. You can utilise all the tools available and host the manual on your own site by using the FLOSS Manuals 'live manual' API or by linking to the PDF. We can also host templates created by your own team so you can publish static HTML manuals with your own look and feel. If you point a sub domain at our sever we are more than happy to change our hosting configuration so that your sub-domain points directly to your manual.

In a short time we also hope to have the Print on Demand process automated so that you can publish to a print on demand service and control the resale value of the book yourself. This means you can sell your manual at a profit to raise funds for the software project. FLOSS Manuals asks no fee and we expect no income from sales of your manuals.

So, you may decide never to list the manual on the front page of FLOSS Manuals, preferring instead to have the docs hosted under your domain.

Our principle aim is not to be a publisher but to create as many tools and outlets for quality free documentation as possible. If that means you wish to use the FM tool set but host or 'publish' under your own banner, then that's excellent. We are very happy to offer you a documentation platform to meet all your documentation needs.

Of course, all this is for free software / open source software projects only. If you create proprietary software then...

Reading Manuals

We aim to provide you with good quality free information on how to use free software. By 'free' we mean the information costs no money, apart from an internet connection of course. However, we also mean 'free' in the sense that you can copy, distribute, and modify the manuals in any way you see fit.

All of the manuals are accessible through the front page of our website, where they are organised into several sections which are categories of software.

read

You will notice a list of categories in Orange and the softwares listed below each category in grey. If you click on one of the software names you will be taken immediately to that manual. For example, if I click on 'Audacity' I will see the latest version of the Audacity manual :

audacity

This is the Audacity Manual.

In each manual there are four sections you need to know about:

Navigation

On the left side you will see the index of the manual:

aud_index

The index shows a list of sections in black with the chapters underneath. To read a chapter you simply click on the white chapter title.

Content

If you click on a chapter title the content will be displayed in the section on the right. For example if I click on 'Ubuntu' in the 'Installing' section I will see something like this in the box on the right:

This is the content of the chapter I just chose to read.

PDF and Print Version

If you wish to download the entire manual you can download a PDF version. This can be done by clicking on the 'MAKE PDF' icon:

pdf

This icon is always under the heading of the manual and when you click on it you can download a manual with exactly the same content as you see online in PDF format. The PDF also includes a cover and a linked table of contents.

If you wish to print the manual on your printer at home or the office, you should click on 'VIEW ALL & PRINT':

If you click on this icon the manual will be displayed all one one HTML page and without any extra design. It is simply the 'plain', single page, version of the manual. This means you can print it easily on your printer.

Comment and Edit

If you wish to comment on the contents of the manual you can do so using the links at the top right of the content box:

discuss

Clicking on 'Edit this page' will take you to the WRITE section of FLOSS Manuals, where you can create an account and edit any of the manuals. Clicking on the 'Discussion' takes you to a page where you can comment on the content without needing to register.

Exit the manual

When you wish to return to the READ section click on the arrow at the top left of the page:

back

Editing Overview

Editing manuals is where all the fun begins! Free documentation writing should be an enjoyable experience, so focus on a task you think is fun and get started. You don't have to 'think big' when making a contribution, every edit helps. Making the images better, improving lay out, spell checking, laying out the print-on-demand manuals, re-writing a sentence, or adding whole chapters or manuals are all tasks that help improve the manuals. So pick something that appeals to you and go ahead and do it.

The best way to learn how to contribute is to jump in and do it. Don't worry about making mistakes, just get stuck in and edit away. If you make a mistake someone else will spot it and correct it later.

If you are worried that errors will put readers wrong, then don't worry! All edits to the manuals are not 'live' but are filtered through a simple publishing process where edits are checked before they go into the final manual.

FLOSS Manuals is about creating good documentation, but we are also about participation and collaborative knowledge building. There is a community involved in producing the manuals, and if you want to discuss issues then consider joining the mailing list:
http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net

WRITE

The WRITE section (http://www.flossmanuals.net/write) of FLOSS Manuals is where all the manuals are located for editing.

write

You can see two basic sections of this page. On the left is the navigation bar and on the right is the content window. In the example above this is displaying the WRITE home page. You can see a list of manuals under the title MANUALS:

manuals

By clicking on any of these titles you will be taken to the 'Home page' for that manual. If I click on the GIMP manual I will see something like this:

gimp_home_1

This page contains the information about the GIMP manual. Notice this page is not the page that the reader sees if they clicked on GIMP from the READ section (the front page of FLOSS Manuals). The actual GIMP manual looks like this:

gimp_read

The above is the 'published' version of the GIMP Manual. You might ask 'why there are two versions of the manual?' Well, all manuals have a development version and a published version. The development version may contain half finished edits, chapters that have not yet been included in the final manual, material that needs to be spell checked etc. It is not nice for readers to see all this, so when all the edits and spell checking etc is done these changes get copied to the manual the reader sees.

The development version, where you make all the edits, is kept in the WRITE section, and the readable version is kept in the READ section. If a manual does not have a version in READ it means it is not yet ready to be included there and more work needs to be done.

Having the two different versions like this also means that you shouldn't be worried about making mistakes when editing manuals. The reader will never see these mistakes.

Chapters

Every manual is made up of chapters. When you edit a manual you are actually editing a chapter within that manual. Chapters can be accessed for editing through the manuals WRITE home page (lets call this the manuals 'homepage'). If I look at the example of the GIMP homepage I can see that there is a list of chapters :

chapters_1

I can see three columns. The first column contains the name of the chapter. This name is linked to the editable version of the chapter. If I like I can edit the chapter directly by clicking on the 'edit' in the next column. In the final column is text from the first sentence in that chapter.

The name of each chapter is spelt using a system common to many wikis called 'camel case'. A camel case is a compound word (one or more words joined together) without spaces and the first letter from each word is capitalised. For example, instead of 'Installing Windows' we have 'InstallingWindows' etc.

The names are like this only in the WRITE section. When a new version of a manual gets copied to the READ section these titles are changed to something more reader-friendly. Also note that the list of chapters above contain chapters not in the version of the manual in READ and also that they are in a different order. Choosing the right names for each chapter, deciding which ones to include and exclude, and putting them in the right order is the job of the manuals Maintainer.

Maintainers

Each manual has a Maintainer. A Maintainer is someone that keeps an overview of the manual. Their job is to keep an eye on quality, communicate with people contributing to the manual, and publish the most recent 'readable' version of the manual as necessary. If you are contributing to a manual it is nice to keep in touch with the manual's Maintainer, but it is not necessary. You could just edit away without ever being in touch with the Maintainer. However the Maintainer is the central point for all information about the manual so it can be useful to drop them a line (especially if you create a new chapter and want it included in the manual). The Maintainer's email address is always displayed :

maintainer

Not all the manuals have dedicated Maintainers, so in general if you see the email address 'adam@flossmanuals.net' it means the manual is by default maintained by Adam Hyde. If you want to become a Maintainer drop him a line.

Managing Accounts

FLOSS Manuals gives you lots of tools for managing your account. If you ever get stuck you can always email the system administrator : adam@flossmanuals.net

Creating an Account

It is necessary to register (create an account) before you can start editing. Anyone can register, and your account is active immediately.

We require registration before you can contribute so that you can be credited for your contributions. All chapters carry a credit notice for both the creator of a chapter and all those that modified the content.

Registration also helps to reduce SPAM. Some nasty SPAMMERS have automatic processes that submit content to wikis and other open systems. These 'contributions' are annoying and waste everyone's time. By requiring registration we avoid most of these automatic processes and keep the site clear of most SPAM.

To register you need to go to http://www.flossmanuals.net/register

You will see a simple form :
register

In this form you can enter your details. All fields are required except the country.

First Name and Last Name

It is a good idea to use your correct first and last names for the purposes of crediting you for your contributions.

Username

You use the Username to log into FLOSS Manuals. It is automatically (by default) changed to a combination of your first and last names. However you can change it, and doing so will make no difference to how you are credited.

Email

Please note that FLOSS Manuals does not publish your email anywhere, even on our own site. Your email address is sinply required for admin purposes (such as mailing you your password if you forget it).

Password

It is not a good idea to use a password you use for storing sensitive information anywhere. This is good practice for any accounts you create on any new system. Use instead a password you haven't used before or one that you might use just for these kind of purposes.

Country

Its interesting to know where contributers are from but it's not compulsory for you to tell us.

If you enter all the information correctly you should receive an email telling you everything is ok, and then you will be automatically logged-in and sent to the WRITE part of the website where you can start contributing to manuals.

You can see that you are logged in by checking the top of the navigation bar on the left. If you are it will display your user name:

loggedin

When you have registered you can later log in using the Username you entered and the password you gave.

Logging In

To log in to FLOSS Manuals you need to first open the WRITE section of FLOSS Manuals. If you already have FLOSS Manuals open in your browser then just click on 'WRITE' :

Or you can point your browser to http://www.flossmanuals.net/write

Then you click on the LOGIN text :

loggedout

This will bring up the login page :

In the text boxes shown enter your Username and your Password and press 'Logon'. You will then be directed to the WRITE section.

Logging Out

You may wish to log out when you have finished working with FLOSS Manuals for the day. This is usually a good idea if you are sharing a machine as it ensures no one else can make edits under your name. If, at anytime, you wish to log out simply click on LOGOUT at the top left of the navigation bar:

logout

This will instantly log you out of FLOSS Manuals and you should see that your Username disappears and LOGOUT changes to LOGIN.

loggedout

Forgotten Your Password?

If you you come to log in and you realise you have forgotten your password then in the log-in window you will see a link to resetting your password :

reset

This last link will take you to a new page where you can request a new password be sent to you via email.

Want to change your password?

If you decide you need to change your password then in the login page you can click on 'change' :

reset_1

You will be directed to a new page where you can change your password.

Creating a New Chapter

Anyone that has registered and logged in can create a new chapter, the process is pretty simple:

Start by going to one of the manuals listed in the WRITE section, I will use the GIMP manual as an example, where you will see this:

gimp_home_1

If you look at the bottom of the first orange box you will see 'Create a new chapter' (in some manuals this box may not be located in the same place) :

create

To create a new chapter (make sure you are logged in) type the name of the new chapter in the box provided and press 'Create'. If I want to create a chapter I can type something like 'Improving photos' :

newchapter

When I press 'Create' a new chapter will be created and I will be taken directly to the new chapter so I can start editing :

newlycreated

What you may notice is that the name of the chapter is now displayed at the top and it is displayed in 'Camel Case'. So I see 'ImprovingPhotos' not what I wrote, which was 'Improving photos'. All chapters are converted to Camel Case like this automatically.

You should also see a default text everytime that you create a new chapter. You should delete this text before you start writing you chapter.

Credits

When you create a new chapter you are immediately credited as the copyright owner and the chapter is licensed under the GPL. The GPL is the 'General Public License' and this is the license used by FLOSS Manuals to ensure all content is kept free. For more information about the license see http://www.flossmanuals.net/license

Some think it is odd that the we use copyright at all... after all isn't the content meant to be 'open'? Well, all free licenses, including Creative Commons, are not outside of copyright. They are all licenses that manage copyright so that others can use and re-use the content. Hence there is always a 'copyright holder' - and that person is the one who created the content. If you create a chapter you 'own' that chapter. However the license (GPL) means anyone can use it, for any purpose, forever, as long as any changes they make are also licensed using the GPL.

The credits are listed on every output of FLOSS Manuals. So your name will be associated with the chapter in the online manuals, the downloadable PDF, and in a print-on-demand version of the manual. You can also see the credit notice at anytime by looking at the chapter in the WRITE section. For example, if I save the chapter created in the above example I see this:

credits

You would of course see your name here. The name comes not from your Username but the First Name and Last Name you gave when you registered, so it is important you entered that information correctly.

Editing

To edit a manual you first visit its home page in the WRITE section.

For an example, let's take a look at the GIMP Manual:

gimp_home_1

If we scroll down the page there is the list of chapters that you can edit:

chapters_1

The quick way to begin editing is just to click on the 'edit' link next to the chapter's title. However you might want to look at the chapter before you edit it. If that's the case then just click on the title of the chapter.

In this example I will click on 'OpenAFile', which shows me this :

openafile

This is the development version of the chapter 'OpenAFile'.

Chapter Information

At the top of the page there is a lot of information about the chapter :

info

Quicklinks

This takes you back to the manual's homepage in WRITE

Software

You can use this drop down menu to jump to other manuals to edit.

Chapter

This drop down displays all the chapters for the current manual you are working on. Choosing a chapter from the drop down jumps you directly to it.

Chapter Info

This is the current revision number of the chapter (each time you edit the chapter this number progresses by 0.1). Also displayed is the date of the last edit, and the copyright notice. All material is licensed under the General Public License and ('GPL)' which means the content is free to use by anyone for any purpose as long as they also license any changes under the GPL. For more information on this see http://www.flossmanuals.net/license

Edit

This is the big red edit button that you click to start editing the chapter.

Begin Editing

To begin editing you simply click on 'Edit' and you can start editing. If you are not logged in you will first be presented with the log in page :

When you have filled in your Username and Password and pressed 'Logon' you will be directed immediately to the editing page for the chapter :

editopenafile

The above is the WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is_what-You-Get) editor for the chapter 'OpenAFile' . The editor works just like a word processor.

Text Only Editing

If you don't like the WYSIWYG editor then you use the text-only edit function. To do this you will first need to be logged in. When you are logged in you will see some tools appear on the left toolbar of the chapter you wish to edit :

openloggedin

The top two tools are EDIT and TEXT ONLY EDIT. If you click on EDIT you get the WYSIWYG editor. If you click on TEXT ONLY EDIT you get something that looks like this:

textonly

This is the plain text version of the chapter. You can use wiki mark-up (the syntax some use to contribute material to wikis) here, or you can write the text in HTML. If you write in wiki mark-up it will be, at some stage, converted to, and stored, as HTML.

Edit Tools

By default all editing is done via the WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) editor. A WYSIWYG editor looks like a word processor or text editor except that it works within your browser. FLOSS Manuals uses a version called XINHA, which looks something like this:

wysiwyg

The above is an example of the WYSIWYG editor in action (editing a chapter from the GIMP manual).

As you see, at the top of the page there is a list of tools that look remarkably like many of the tools you will be used to if you have used a text editing software like Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, GEdit, TextEdit, Notepad, or Wordpad.

The tools pretty much work the way you would expect them too. In fact, they even use some of the same keyboard shortcuts.

WYSIWYG Tools

Lets look at the tools one a time :

Save

This is a very handy tool, it enables you to edit the text as you are working, very much like 'save' in a text editor. Actually you can use the keyboard CTRL-s instead of clicking on the icon.

Fullscreen

This will make the editor use as much of your browser window as possible. It helps extend the editing area and generally makes life easier if you have a larger screen. If you wish to 'shrink' the window back to normal size then click this button again.

Font Style

This is how you choose the style of the font you will use. There are five types of font styles available from this drop down menu :

Heading 1 - this is generally used on the heading at the top of each chapter

Heading 2 - this is a sub heading under a Heading 1

Heading 3 - the next level of sub headings

Normal - for all 'normal' text

Formatted - used for showing quotes or code snippets

To apply any of these styles just choose it from the drop down menu and begin typing. If you wish to change the style of a specific text then highlight that text (click and drag your mouse across the text to be changed) and then choose the style you wish to apply.

Bold, Italics, Underline and Strikethrough

These are 4 separate buttons and they each apply a different effect to a word or words. They all literally apply (in this order) bold, italics, underline, and a ~~strikethrough~~. Apply them by clicking on the buttons or use the keyboard shortcuts : CTRL b, CTRL i, CTRL u and CTRL s.

Superscript and Subscript

These two buttons enable you to smaller text slightly below or above the normal text like so: super^scriptsub_script

Aligning Text

These four buttons allow you to decide the alignment of the text. The text can be aligned left, middle, right, or justified. All of the text in FLOSS Manuals chapters is aligned left.

Bullet Points and Numbering

There are three tools to help with creating numbered lists and bullet points. The button on the left will turn any text into a number list like so :

one item

two items

three items

If you wish to change the style of the numbering you first create the numbered list, and then click anywhere on that list and choose a different style from the drop down list. You can do the following (for example)

one item

two items

three items

or

one item

two items

three items

The button on the right allows you to create bullet points like so:

one item

two items

three items

Indent and Un-indent

You can create paragraph indents using the button with the right-pointing arrow. The button on the left 'undoes' the indent.

Separator

This button is used to place a separating line in text like so:

Create Link

This button enables you to create a link to webpages. You use it by highlighting some text and then click on it, you will see a small pop-up window like so:

You fill in the link URL at the top, including the 'http://' part. You can also provide a 'tooltip' - a text that will show when someone has their mouse hovering above the linked text. Additionally you can choose whether the URL should open in the same browser window or in a new window using the 'Target' drop down menu.

Place/Upload an Image

This is how you add images. Its quite a simple process but you might need to try it a few times before you get it right. To place an image, first place the cursor on the page where the image should go. Then click on this button and you will see a pop-up window like so:

You can browse the folders shown by double clicking on them. When you find an image you want to use click on it and press 'OK' and the image will be placed on the page.

If you wish to first upload an image, then select the directory you wish to upload the image to. Each manual has its own directory, so it's best to find that directory (usually it has the same name as the manual) and then create or find a directory within the manual directory with the same name as the chapter you are editing. Then press 'Browse' :

When you have browsed your computers file to find the image highlight it, and press 'Upload' The image can then be placed in the page. The maximum width for all images is 600 pixels.

Tables

To create a table use the button shown above. It will bring up a pop-up window like so :

Here you can set some of the attributes for tables.

Erase Formating

If you have some text which you have perhaps copied from another webpage or has a mixture of fonts and styles, you can highlight the text and then click on this button and all formatting will be removed.

View HTML

If you click on this button you will be shown the raw HTML code for the chapter. You can edit the chapter using this mode, to turn back to WYSIWYG click on the icon again.

Spell Check

This button indeed does a spell check. It will pop a window like this :

You can then replace words with one of the suggestions by clicking on 'replace' or 'replace all' or 'Ignore' if you want to leave it as it is.

Help and Info

The first of these buttons tells you about the keyboard shortcuts for the above functions. The second button shows the credits for the XINHA WYSIWYG editor.

Remixing Manuals

You can make your own manuals using the REMIX section (http://www.flossmanuals.net). Remixed manuals can contain any chapters from the available manuals. Remixes are done through a drag-and-drop interface through your browser, and you can export them to PDF, or downloadable HTML. It is also possible to embed the manual in your website through the 'live manual' feature.

Why REMIX?

Remixing enables you to create a manual that suits your needs. I don't know about you but I often only use a chapter or two from any manual I purchase, because not many manuals cover exactly what I want. By remixing manuals you can get exactly the chapters you need. If you are leading workshops, for example, you can include only the chapters from the softwares you will use and for the functions you are teaching. Inhouse training material can also be customised for your needs, or you might just wish to take a PDF away with you which covers specific topics.

Additionally, you may wish to explain to people how to do something related to your website. This is where the 'live manual' remix comes in handy. You can remix a manual and have it appear in your website, although it is hosted and kept up-to-date at FLOSS Manuals. If you are a software developer it might also be useful to host your manual at FLOSS Manuals and embed it in your website using the live manual feature.

Begin Your Remix

The first thing to do is to visit the REMIX part of the site. You can get there by clicking 'REMIX' on the navigation bar on FLOSS Manuals :

remixnav

This will take you to the front page of the REMIX section :

remixfpage

There are three steps involved in making a Remix.

Step 1- Remix

The first step involves choosing the chapters for your remix. This is a drag and drop process. First choose a manual from the drop down box :

dropdown

Here we can see there are a number of manuals that we can choose from. If you select one and then you will see a list of chapters appear. Let's choose the Icecast manual as an example :

icecast

Now we can click on these chapters and drag drag them to the remix box in any order. You can also drag the section titles (the yellow boxes) to the remixed manual :

dragged

Then you can also select another manual from the drop down box and add chapters from those manuals :

manual

If you want to change the name of the chapter you can click on 'edit title' :

changetitle

Then you can type whatever you like here and press 'enter' when you are finished renaming it:

renamed

Keep adding chapters and renaming until you are happy with the arrangement of your manual.

Step 2 - Style

In step 2 you can determine the look and feel of the remixed manual. First click on 'Step 2 : Style' and then you will see something like this :

step2

If you feel your manual needs to be re-arranged or another chapter added (or removed) then you can always go back to Step 1 by clicking on Step 1 - Remix. First call your manual somethng by typing a name in the 'Title' box. Then Choose the format you wish to export the manual, this is displayed in the drop down menu under 'Export as :'. Live Manuals come in Step 3 so if you wish a live manual you can skip to that step. The options available from the drop down box are :

PDF

This will output your manual as a PDF with a cover and a linked index (table of contents) and a credits section at the back listing all the contributers to the manuals. If you choose PDF you need to then also choose the cover you will use from the 'Select Cover Page' drop down menu. Once you have selected the cover you can go to Step 3.

HTML zip

This option will export your manual as a 'standalone' manual in a zip (compressed) file. This is good for including on CDs or putting on a website (although live manuals are better for this). You can design the look and feel of the manual through style sheets, more on this below.

HTML tar

This is the same as HTML zip but the compressed file is downloaded as a tar file (good for linux users).

If you have chosen one of the HTML options then you will have seen the page change a little. It should look somehting liek this:

style

What you see here is a box with style sheet information, and a box with an example of the look and feel of the manual. To alter the look and feel of the manual you change the style sheet information and then you can press 'Update Preview' to see the results. If, for example, I change the value of font-size on the body{} section to '20px' and press 'Update Preview' I see this:

changedstyle

You can change what you like and see how it affects the final look of the manual. When you are ready you can then go to Step 3.

Step 3 - Export

step3

So, this is the step when you can export the manual. If you press 'Export' now you will be delivered a PDF or an HTML (zip or tar) file, depending on what options you chose in step 2.

You will also see a new section which is the test version of the Live Manuals (called AJAX MANUAL BETA).

Live Manuals

If you cut and paste these lines of HTML into a webpage or Blog then you will see the manual appear in the webpage. This means that you can have a manual on your webpage but have that manual hosted and maintained at FLOSS Manuals. The default manual looks something like this:

You can change the look and feel of the manual by altering the parameters in the code you paste :
var FLOSSConfig = {'style': {'title': 'color: black; font-size: 20;font-family:
Arial,verdana, sans-serif;font-weight: bold', 'heading': 'font-weight: bold;
color:black;font-family: Arial,verdana, sans-serif;font-size: 12','embed':
'font-size: 12px;font-family: Arial,verdana, sans-serif;font-weight: bold'},
'config': {'width': '870px', 'height': '500px', 'framewidth': '670px'},
'pages': [], 'title': ''};
Experiment with this a little and see what you come up with!

Introduction to INDEX

FLOSS Manuals provides a nice tool so that allows you to take all the chapters you have created and arrange them in a nice order, divided up into sections if necessary, and renamed so they are more user friendly. This toot is called IndexGen but we call it INDEX for short.

It looks something like this :

indexgen

Before we get into how it all works let's first look at how manuals are created and presented.

Publishing Process

If you go to the front page of FLOSS Manuals you will see lots of manuals listed. If you click on one (let's choose Audacity), then you see something like this:

audacity

Here you see the first page of the manual and the index on the left. INDEX is what we use to generate the manuals index that you see here. The PDF that is linked from this index also follows the order of the chapters you arrange with INDEX.

So...where do these chapters come from? Well, the process of writing and publishing a manual occurs in three steps:

First you write the manual in the manual repository (http://www.flossmanuals.net/write)
Then you arrange the index using INDEX
Then the manual is published to static HTML and PDF using another tool (PUBLISH)

By using this process we separate the material that is being worked on from the manual that the reader sees. Hence the reader can read the nice 'stable' version of the manual online or as a PDF, while the manual continues to be developed.

Anatomy of a Manual

So if you look at the Audacity manual repository (where you write the manual) you will see something like this :

write_aud

You can use this interface to add chapters and edit chapters without the changes effecting the manual the reader sees. What you will notice is that the names of the chapters listed are different than the names of the chapters in the published manual. The following is the index of the audacity the reader sees :

indexman

In the above image you can see three components of the index. The first, at the top, is the title of the manual, in this case 'AUDACITY'. After the print and PDF icons we can see a section heading - the first one is titled 'INTRODUCTION' and there are two chapters under this section heading - 'INTRODUCTION' and 'WHAT IS DIGITAL AUDIO?'. Then comes the next section heading 'INSTALLING' followed by the chapters that occur in that section etc.

The following is the table that displays the title, section headings, and chapters in the Audacity repository where the manual is written .

index_arrange

You can see that it follows the same structure as the published manual. Some of the chapters are not included in the published manual, these are included as a list at the bottom ('EditID3', 'Tester' etc).

Using INDEX

The INDEX tool is a very simple drag and drop mechanism for arranging the index of the manual you wish to publish. If you use this tool to arrange the index of a manual you will see something like this:

indexgen

Here we have the chapters of a manual that we can arrange into a nice index. If you look at the same manual in the repository you will see the exact same chapters listed :

examplewrite

As you can see the lists of chapters are the same.

Dragging Chapters

Now we use INDEX to build the manual index by dragging chapters from the left list to the list on the right :

drag

You can arrange the chapters in any order you like. You can also re-arrange them once they have been placed by dragging them up and down the order. Additionally, if you wish to remove one of the chapters from the new index you can drag the chapter back to the left box.

Adding Sections

To add a new section you just need to click on the button labeled 'add section' and you will see a new section appear with the default title :

newsection

You can then drag this new section header to anywhere in the index.

Renaming Chapters and Sections

When you first create a chapter it has a 'wiki' name. For example, when you look at the original list of chapters in the above example we see chapters like 'WhatIsABlog'. If you drag this chapter to the INDEX then you may wish to change the name to make it a little more readable and friendly. To do this you just need to double-click on the chaprer name or click on the blue 'EDIT' link. When you do this the chapter name turns into a editable text box:

rename

You can then change the name by typing in the box. This is the name of the chapter that the readers will see. You can also use this method for changing the name of the manual (In the dark grey box at the top) and the sections (orange boxes).

Saving

When you have finished creating your index don't forget to click on the 'save' button.

Localize

FLOSS Manuals has a simple mechanism for translating the interface of the site. This enables the creation of different language versions of FLOSS Manuals. Localize is the name of a group of tools we developed for this purpose.

localize

The above is the 'front page' of our localize tools. These tools help you translate the interface of FLOSS Manuals into other languages. Please note, this is not the same as translating the manuals themselves, we have other tools for this purpose.

You may only be given access to the localize interface for the purposes of translation. So if you never need to translate the FLOSS Manuals interface you will probably never see these tools.

Portable Object Files

If you wish to choose a language to work on you simply click on the short name of the language on the left. These abbreviations all have the suffix '.po' that is because the interface of FLOSS Manuals is rendered by substituting the source language of the site (in this case English) with the appropriate Portable Object file (.po). Portable Object files are used increasingly in free software projects for managing interface languages. Essentially it works like this:

Each English phrase ('source phrase') in the interface is represented in each '.po' file
The entire source phrase is used as a unique variable name
For each source phrase there is a corresponding translation in the relevant .po file
This translation is essentially the 'value' of the unique variable mentioned above
When you choose a non-English language interface, you are asking the site to substitute 'on the fly' the relevant variable with its new value

To make a new language version of the FLOSS Manuals website you need to open the '.po' file and create a translation for every source phrase. To do this we have built some nice tools for you so you can do all of this editing from within the browser.

Images

In addition to the text phrases which are managed with .po files, some of the interface elements are contained within images. We do this quite a bit with FLOSS Manuals because using images in the interface gives you more control over look and feel. So the localize tool set has some interesting possibilities for replacing images which contain texts.

CSS

Additionally, different languages may need some changes to the layout because there are different character sets used. For this our localize tools have a browser based stylesheet (CSS) editor.

Getting Started

To get started with the the FLOSS Manuals localization tools you need to first choose a language you wish to work on. You can see that the front page of the localize tools has a list of languages on the left :

langs

The languages are represented by 'locale abbreviations' and all end wiuth the suffix '.po'.

If you wish to work on one of these languages (for translation) then you need to simply click on the appropriate abbreviation. For example, if I was to choose German I would click on 'de.po'. Once I have done this more options will appear in the interface like so :

options

You can click on each of these tabs for different translation functions. You can also, at anytime, click on the "LANGUAGE' tab (the one you started with) to be returned to the start page. You can also see that in each tab is the name of the language you have selected :

Additionally, you can always tell which function of localize you are using by the color of the tabs. The active tab will always be a different colour to the others. For example, when I am in the 'start page' you will notice that the colour of the 'LANGUAGE' tab is pale while the rest are yellow.

The other tabs are, in brief, as follows :

TRANSLATE

If you click on this tab you access functions that enable you to translate the text in the .po file you have already chosen.

IMAGES & CSS

This section enables you to download, upload, and replace images in the interface. You can also edit the stylesheets for the language here.

SETTINGS

Generally you won't need to alter anything here. The setting is technical information specific to the .po. file you are working on. Unless you know what you are doing it is best not to change anything here.

TRANSLATE

To start editing the language you have chosen to work on click on the 'TRANSLATE' tab in the localize tools. It will take a few moments for the loading to occur and you will be notified of its progress :

The loading process stores all the phrases in the memory of your browser so that moving between phrases is faster and not reliant on the browser 'reloading' each time you work on a new term. Depending on your internet connection the loading should take less than a minute. When the page has loaded you will see a list of a lot of phrases:

examplephrases

On the left you see the original phrase in English, on the right you will see the translated phrase in the language you have chosen.

To translate a phrase click on it and you will see the translation window appear :

translationinterface

You can see that the phrase you clicked on that you wish to translate is located in the 'Original string' box. The translation itself is in the 'Translated string' box. The 'Translation string' might be empty if the phrase has not yet been translated.

To translate the phrase you must copy the original string and translate only the words. The format of the translation must be kept intact. For example, with the above phrase you can see that the English word 'hour' has been translated to the German equivalent 'Stunde'. However the rest of the symbols, and the order of the symbols remains the same. This is very important.

When you have translated a phrase you can either navigate to another phraase for translation by clicking on 'NEXT>>' or '<<PREVIOUS' or you can click on 'CLOSE'. If you click 'CLOSE' you will be asked if you wish to save the changes :

saveconfirm

If you wish to save the changes click on 'OK'. If you do not wish to save them at this stage press 'Cancel'. Both options will close the translation window. If you have chosen 'Cancel' then you can always save at a later time by clicking on 'Save Changes' in the TRANSLATION interface :

savechanges

Please note that choosing this option will save all the changes you made since you chose the language in the LANGUAGES tab, so make sure you really wish to save all changes before doing this.

Navigation

You can navigate between phrases either through the translation window by clicking on 'NEXT>>' or '<<PREVIOUS'. These two links will move you incrementally through the phrases one at a time. However if you wish to proceed at a slightly faster pace you can close the translation window and scroll through the complete list of phrases using the scroll bar on the right (or a mouse scroll button if you have one) :

scroll

You can also refine the selection to scroll through by selecting one of the options at the top :

selectphrases

The options are as follows :

All - Show all phrases

Translated - show all translated phrases

Untranslated - show all untranslated phrases

Fuzzy - show all Fuzzy phrases (a fuzzy phrase is one that may need to be re-translated).

Localizing Images

Many of the interface elements in FLOSS Manuals are made from images. Some of these images contain text so it's necessary to be able to change these images to reflect the language version of the site. To access the functions to do this via the localisation tools you must click on the 'IMAGES & CSS' tab, then you should see something like this :

skinselect

FLOSS Manuals uses 'skins' for determining layout. Skins control which images are used, the interface texts, and the colors etc. It is easy to change the entire look and feel of the FLOSS Manuals site or individual manuals by using skins. How you do this isn't so important to know here.

In this process we are going to select a skin called 'floss2' from the drop down box shown :

floss2

It is very likely that you will then see the text as shown above ('Does not exist. Do you want to create it?'). You should create this so press 'Yes' and after a few minutes the drop down box will be refreshed, and you choose 'floss2' from the list:

On the left you see the list of images and css files. You can click on any of these names to view the files (they will open in a separate browser window). Listed is also the size of each file (which really doesn't matter so much but maybe useful in helping you identify any images that could be optmized).

There are four columns following the size column.

edit

This column will only appear for css files. The edit function allows you to edit the stylesheets from within the browser. If you click on edit you will see something like this :

editcss_1

You can type directly into the text box and then press 'Save changes' when you are finished. All changes will be effective immediately so it's best to pick a quiet moment to do this to minimise problems that may occur to visitors of the site.

rename

'rename' enables you to rename an image or css file. If you do this you may cause yourself problems as the file may not be able to be found by the FLOSS Manuals site using its new name. So you want to have a pretty good reason to change file names, but it if you do then this is the function to use. Pressing 'rename' brings up a window like this :

renameimage

Simply type in the new name and press 'Rename'. Note : if you change the suffix of the file the format of the file will not be changed, so do not change a '.gif' image name to end with '.jpg' unless you know that the file is actually a jpeg.

download & upload

These two columns are titled pretty literally: 'download' enables you to download the file, and 'upload' enables you to upload the file. To translate an image you would first download that image (by clicking 'download' and saving it to your computer) and then translate the relevant texts in the file using your favourite image editor. Then you need to upload the translated image. To do this press 'upload' and a pop-up window will appear :

upload

Click on 'Browse...' and a file browser window will appear. Use this to browse to the image you just translated. When you have found it and selected it, then press 'Upload' and the file will be uploaded. It doesn't matter what the name of the file you are uploading is as it will be renamed to the same name as the file it is replacing. For this reason it is very important that the file is of the same type. Don't try and replace a gif with a jpeg for example.

remove

To delete a file click 'remove'. This file will be permanently erased so be careful. When you click on 'remove' you will be presented with a window asking you to confirm the choice :

deleteconfirm

If you are sure you want to delete the file press 'OK' else click 'Cancel'.

XCHANGE Introduction

Each FLOSS Manuals language site is a separate installation. Essentially this means that languages can be handled much more efficiently. To facilitate the transfer of documents between these separate installations FLOSS Manuals has built a system known as XCHANGE. This tool set enables any site within the FLOSS Manuals network to get content from any other site in the network.

The XCHANGE interface is very simple to use but is only accessible to administrators so it might be that you will never see this interface:

xchange_1

What you see here is a mechanism for transferring entire manuals and individual chapters (with images) from one language version of FLOSS Manuals to another. The process allows you to :

Preview the material before transferral
Choose chapters and manuals for transferring
Mark the migrated material as 'published', 'unpublished' or 'untranslated'
Rename the individual chapters or the manual

XCHANGE Basics

The interface for XCHANGE is divided into four parts: server, manual, chapter, and preview.

server

xchangeserver

Through this drop-down list you can choose a list of servers from the FLOSS Manuals network. The list contains the abbreviations for the language of each server. For example the French FLOSS Manuals site is listed as 'fr'.

When you have chosen a server the manuals for that server are listed in the manual drop-down box.

manuals

xchangemanuals

When you select a server the box on the right of the image above will load with a list of manuals from that server. The administrator for that server has control of what you can and can't see in this list. When you select a manual from the list you will see the list of chapters for that manual in the text window below the drop down :

xchangechapterlist

On the right of the manual section you also have a list of manuals that are already on the server you are working on. If you select a manual from that drop-down you will also see a list of chapters displayed.

Transferring Manuals

To transfer a manual from the remote server to your server follow this simple process :

Ensure no manual is selected in the 'Existing Manuals' list
Select a manual from the drop-down list on the left
Click 'Transfer Manual'

A pop-up window will then ask you to confirm the transfer and you have the opportunity to change the name of the manual if you wish to:

xctransfer

You may wish to translate the name of the manual to your own language. You can also mark the manual and all chapters with a status. If you are copying the manual for translation then choose 'untranslated' from the drop-down menu. This is very important if you are using the 'XchangeTranslate' functions in FLOSS Manuals, as chapters marked with 'untranslated' will be given the option to use a translation interface for editing/translation.

If you decide you do not wish to transfer the manual click 'cancel', otherwise click 'transfer' and you will see progress bars while the transfer takes place:

xchtransprogress

When this process has completed the 'Existing manuals' drop-down will be reloaded and will list your new manual. All images have been copied and are marked with a suffix to tell you which server the images came from. This is so you can easily see which screenshots may need to be replaced by screenshots of the software in your own language. The manual will also appear in the 'write' section of the FLOSS Manuals site you are working on so you can begin editing/translating.

Chapters

The chapter section lists chapters for the manuals selected in the manual drop-down lists :

xchchapterlists

Clicking on a chapter in either list will display that chapter in the preview window :

xchpreview

Transfer Chapter

To transfer a chapter from the remote manual to a manual on the server you are working on follow these steps:

Select a manual from the drop-down menu on the left (a manual on the remote server)
Select a manual that you wish to transfer the chapter to from the drop-down menu on the right
Click on the chapter you wish to transfer
Click on 'Transfer Manual'

A pop-up will appear :

xchchaptrans

Here you can translate (rename) the name of the chapter. You can also mark the chapter with a status. If you are transferring the chapter for translation choose 'untranslated'.

If you wish to cancel the process choose 'cancel' else click on 'transfer' and progress bars will be displayed so you can see how long the process is taking.

xcchaprprog

When the process has finished you will see the new chapter listed on the list of chapters on the right.

Preview

This section displays chapters selected for preview.

XCHANGE TRANSLATE

The XCHANGE TRANSLATE functions enable you to see translated manuals that have been transferred from another FLOSS Manuals language server. If you choose a manual to be edited you will see a list of all the chapters. Chapters that are to be translated will have an additional link 'translate' :

xtchaplist

To translate a manual click 'translate' and you will see the translation interface :

On the left you see the original chapter in the original language :

xtorig

This page is loaded live from the remote server. If the other server has renamed this chapter it is ok, it will still be displayed because Xchange Translate gives each chapter a unique identifying number. You see the version number of the chapter displayed (in this case 1.8) in the top grey box. You can also choose an earlier, or later (if there is one) version of the chapter for translation by selecting the version number in the drop-down box. This is primarily so you can see newer versions of the chapter in case you wish to translate or add part of the newer version.

On the right is the translation window. This is a WYSIWYG editor :

xtwyswwyg

This begins empty so you can create the translated text. You can see all the images for the chapter by clicking on the small picture icon in the tool bar. All images that have been transferred with XCHANGE will put the images for a chapter in a directory with the same name of the chapter nested within a directory with the same name of the manual you are working on. Each image will also have a two-letter suffix which identifies the original language of the server it came from. This is so you can identify which screenshots may need to be remade in your own language.

When you have finished translating you may save the chapter by clicking on 'save'. Before you do this you may wish to change the status of the chapter from 'untranslated' to 'unpublished' which signals that the chapter is ready for checking (proofing) or publishing. You can change this status in the drop-down box before you click 'save :

License

All chapters copyright of the authors (see below). Unless otherwise stated all chapters in this manual licensed with GNU General Public License version 2

This documentation is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this documentation; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

Authors

_{Free manuals for free software}

General Public License

Version 2, June 1991

Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

Preamble

The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.

To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.

For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.

We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.

Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original authors' reputations.

Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.

The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below, refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program" means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law: that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in the term "modification".) Each licensee is addressed as "you".

Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.

1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.

You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:

: a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
: b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.
: c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on the Program is not required to print an announcement.)

These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.

Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or collective works based on the Program.

In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License.

3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

: a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
: b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
: c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)

The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.

If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not compelled to copy the source along with the object code.

4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it.

6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.

7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.

If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.

It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free software distribution system, which is implemented by public license practices. Many people have made generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed through that system in reliance on consistent application of that system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot impose that choice.

This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence of the rest of this License.

8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original copyright holder who places the Program under this License may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of this License.

9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.

Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.

10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.

NO WARRANTY

11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS