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Description for Google Code:


I guess I should introduce myself....
My name is James Ramsay and I am 16 and have just finished Year 12 (1 week ago) in Australia. As I am still enroled at my high school at this stage, and enrolement for university is not for a few months yet, I think I am still eligible for the competition. University doesn't start till early March, so I won't be getting any advantage. Anyway, I guess thats part of the joy of being in a different country to the US.
I have been using Joomla for about 1 year now and was responsible for the setting up of my churches website, hence why I chose this as my first task.
I have done quite a bit of Visual Basic .NET programming but have yet to delve much into PHP beyond simple tweaks here and there.

I guess the main question I have with this task is, what information do you want in the brochure and who is it aimed at? I have done a fair bit of work on it today but some clarification of the specifics of what you are looking for would help ensure I am going in the right direction.

Cheers,
James

P.S. I am really looking forward to getting stuck into this project and getting to know people round here and would love to become more activly involved in the Joomla community and possibly development down the track.

Google Task
[me=AmyStephen]Changed subject slightly for sorting all threads to match against Google resource  [/me]

Hi James!
Great introduction. 

I am very interested in the tri-fold tasks because we do not have very much PR/marketing material. Since you have already built a site for your church, you are an ideal candidate for the Worship tri-fold task. The target audience is people like you who need to provide a web presence for your place of worship. Generally speaking, these people are probably not highly technical. They need an easy way to reach their congregations with their message.

I would suggest starting with research. Look at some of the existing sites people have built for purposes of Worship. It would be very cool to touch base with some of the site owners and get their perspectives on how Joomla! helps them reach out. Then, combine your experiences and research into a very simple and attractive tri-fold that will be helpful to others when they decide what is best for them.

I also think it's good to consider that "public relations" or "marketing" in open source is different than a proprietary organization. We do not see ourselves as competitors with other open source projects, in fact, we are really partners. And, we are not trying to "win over" people or "sell them" on Joomla!, but rather work as a community, sharing our gifts for the common good. If you can get some of that community spirit across in your work, that would be very helpful, as well.

One more thing, Elin told me about Scribus, which would likely be a much better open source solution for producing this type of brochure than Open Office. Feel free to explore that, too.

I will be your mentor and I invite other community members to please join in and help James be successful in his task.
Amy

Hi,

Yeah, the tri-fold brochures are a rather interesting task. I have written some content, and I will look over it and really try to get the community spirit feel going.

About the software, I am not having much trouble with OpenOffice as I compose most of the images in Fireworks and the text just wraps around em. So, I don't think I will move to Scribus at this stage (although it does look rather cool. It never ceases to amaze how good some of the Open Source Software is).

I might post some little snippits of what I have done later today (my time) cause I have a church function, and I should be able to get a quote from the webmaster of the PCEA.

Thanks for the great opportunity with the GHOP!

Cheers,
James

'<---------------- EDIT ----------------->
' Church conference went late, shall post snippits soon
' Hope you don't mind and it will also give me a chance to make a number of changes
' Expect some time Monday AEST

Hi,

I finally got around to putting some of the stuff together. This is just a very rough document, my main focus has been on developing a style/appearance that fits nicely. However, I do hope that the content so far is in the right general direction.

Comments, criticism etc please!
If you don't like, I can work on my other ideas and post those.

Cheers,
James

BUMP (I should have made a new post! Above post now has attachment. Comments please )

GHOP Contestants Please Read: Task Process Start to Finish for important updates on the contest.

James -

I will take a look at your brochure and get back to you in the morning. I encourage other community members to also review James's work and provide your feedback.

Thanks James for your contributions to the Joomla! community,
Amy

Ok, I am in the middle of some other work, but, I took a quick peak and WOW! That baby looks nice! I really do like what you did with it. It is *very* professional.

Some quick ideas -

The Joomla! symbol that is tilted on the cover page - I would put that back to the right proportions. We are not allowed to distort the size, etc., according to the trademark rules. (Like the idea; just can't do it.)

LOVE the heading using those design concepts from the PR page. FABULOUS. Love the black cover page. Love the web 2.0 shadowing of the web address. (I would use http://Joomla.org, personally.)

LOVE the numbering, again, you are carrying over strong and professional symbols. The "Joomla! TM for Worship" at top is nice, nice, nice. I can see a series of brochures each carrying these design details.

Lots of little spelling and misc errors - for example, n page 1 - what is Joomla!:

• mainting - should be maintaining.
• ALWAYS spell Joomla! with the exclamation point (don't ask - just do it  ).
• easily manager your websites content - should be - website (singular) content
• yeilding - should be yielding
• jmangement - management
• maintaing - maintaining
• higly - highly
• profffessional - professional

It would be cool to see three to five website images in the brochure from places of worship - I would work hard to range those instead of emphasizing one faith, as well. You might see what's available on JoomlaPlace or just Google for Joomla! church websites. You can also check out the Site Showcase to see what you can find.

"Message" is always the difficult part. I would not mention "free" as in no charge. I would mention the GPL and benefits of free (freedom) software.

I'll think more about this, but, James, I want you to know, it's a very good start and you are to be encouraged. I know I was! It is immediately impressive and you have capture the professional Joomla! look nicely.

You are doing GREAT! 
Amy

Hi,

Sorry bout all these posts (probably unnessecary) but I updated the cover image so that it isnt a rasterised image that looks really grainy.
Now, all images (except the Joomla! logo) are drawn in OpenOffice which means that you can zoom in and you don't loose quality.

Cheers,
James

Please feel free to post as many times as necessary, without concern. It's much better than return to your previous post and updating since no notifications are sent out for that. You are doing great, James, keep it up!

Amy

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. I am sorry about all the stupid little typos. I am new to OpenOffice (beyond my glances and brief interactions a year back) and so I am having trouble getting spell check working  . Anyway, I shall proof it more carefully in the future.

I have done some more work, including adding 3 screenshots, cleaning my silly notes off the cover panel and fixing up most of what was pointed out by Amy (see post somewhere above ).

I think the styling looks good and am quite pleased with that aspect. Next is finalising the most important part, words (*hides from the english language*).

Hope you like,
James


LINK TO FILE: http://rapidshare.com/files/73742685/Joomla__for_Worship.pdf.html

P.S. Would you like me to share the OpenOffice Document with the images so that other people doing Tri-folds can use it? It would be nice, in my humble opinion, to have a consistent style across the range of tri-folds.

Wow!  This does look professional!

A couple suggestions:

In panel 1 pg. 2, you forgot the exclamation point after Joomla!
In panel 1, proffessional is spelled professional.
At the end of panel 2, "User" shouldn't be capitalized


I love this sentence!  It stood out to me while I was reading it.  It is a powerful idea, but I think it could be worded better.  Possibly:

or

I don't know.  Neither of mine sound great, either.  I think it just needs some playing around with.  You also have to make sure it doesn't sound like there aren't very many templates available!

On panel 4, you might want to mention that they could reuse some of their old html pages instead of having to recreate everything.

Also on panel 4 in the last paragraph, is there supposed to be a period after Joomla! since it already has punctuation?  I don't know myself, but I have seen other people here just use the exclamation point as the sentence punctuation.

An idea for panel 3: extensions.  You can search through a huge database of additional features you can add to your site, and installing them is as easy as 1. Finding the features you want 2. Download  3. Clicking install on your site.

Do you want to add that it has support for Mediawiki wikis? (No wysiwyg yet though, so maybe you don't want to )


Hope some of this helps!

Yes - having the source documents will prove invaluable. If little changes are desired, those can be done. But, the biggest value is in the idea you present --> taking this and using it in other ways. My first thought when I saw this was - Wow! I can see that used as a common approach.

Message. Must consider message, now. Step 1 - get their attention and you nailed that. Now, it's about message. 

You have talent.
Amy

I just finished an ad hoc survey of pamphlet design as well as researching what makes for a good pamphlet. I am an industrial designer. Here is what I know boiled down to the basics. If this is useful, use it, if not, lose it.

Technically, the design statement is incorrect. What you are designing is a BI-fold, TRI-panel pamphlet. A tri-fold will have three creases. (I'm assuming that this is the typical 8.5 x 11 (or A4) pamphlet with three panels.)

Imagine the folded pamphlet in a wall rack. The front panel's purpose is to identify the topic (Joomla!) and be so inviting that the person can't help but pick it up. That's it, that's all the front panel does, get you to pick up the pamphlet. Use the Joomla! name and logo here.

Imagine opening the front cover. What you see next is two panels. The one on the right is the one the reader will look at first. The purpose of this panel is to summarize the content of the panel, explain what the reader will find inside, and finally, get the reader to open the pamphlet all the way. Use a title, subtitle, blurb, short bullet points, or AT MOST one, short paragraph.Use the Joomla! name, logo and website URL here.

Now, if you have done your job well, the reader is looking at three panels of content. Here is where you put ALL your information. Use a balance of images, graphics, white space and text. Keep your text to about 450 words. (most pamphlets fail because they try to say too much and end up with 1000+ words in a small type size). Use the Joomla! name and logo somewhere on these three panels, or perhaps as a watermark.

Finally, the back panel, the panel that was facing the wall before the reader picked it up, is typically not read. Don't flow text back there. Just use this for address, website, disclaimer, and leave room for a stamp or label. Use the Joomla! name, logo, and website URL here.

Excellent comments - thanks Dan for participating and helping our students be successful in their task. 

Amy

My pleasure, Amy! Everyone has been so helpful to me I wanted to give a little something back to the J! community.  Dan

Wow! Thanks for the great feedback!
Dan, what you said was really helpful and I will go back and really rethink what the content is, how much and where it is. I guess it is rather easy to get stuck into things and write too much when you are really passionate about them.

Cheers,
James

James,  I know what you mean!  On my latest pamphlet, my first draft was short, by other's standards, 850 words. Then I trimmed to 600, then to 485 final length. You'd be surprised how much you can remove, useless sentences, repitition, making compound sentences, etc.

I've heard it called the 'Curse of Knowledge'.  We know too much about our subject and forget that our readers know nothing about it.

Dan

Yeah, I really like how you put it with the "Curse of Knowledge" thing.
With a brief glance over the pamphlet, I see what you are saying with lots that could be removed. I should be able to make a dent into today as I have holidays (but for some reason I am reading Joomla forums at 6 AM )

Cheers,
James

Well, here it is. An updated version to reflect most of the suggestions above.
I will need to do more work on Panel "2" as a long slab of text probably isn't the greatest thing to have.

Change log (sort of )
- Fixed Panel "1" - now has sub-headings and is shorter
- Fixed Back Panel - no longer contains content, simply contact information and similar
- Changed Panel "3" - no longer screenshots, but as suggested by "TromboneChamp", information on extensions (Find, Download & Install)
- Updated Panel "4" - still lacks quote, touched up the text, condensed some parts and placed screenshot below

Todo
- Come up with some sort of image/thing for the front cover, currently too much empty space
- Update Panel "2"
- Get quote from Rev. M. G. Smith

Download Here (pdf): http://rapidshare.com/files/73863780/Joomla__for_Worship_V1.1.pdf.html  (now only 292 kB)
Download Here (odt): http://rapidshare.com/files/73885070/Joomla__for_Worship.odt.html (1.3 MB)

Cheers,
James

FANTASTIC!!!  Very well laid out with good organization, color, and text length. I missed seeing an image of something religious. Granted, the iconography tends to be religion specific, which won't work, but something like a chapel/church/synagogue door (they all look alike!) suggests not only religion, but a 'portal', too. 

The last para on your panel numbererd '1' needs work. It is a tad long and crowds the J! logo.

Religious groups have very different needs to
business. The solution needs to be simple and
easy allowing people of various computer skill
levels to get involved. Religious groups also
require lots of flexibility to show simple articles
all the way through to contact lists and maps.
Cost is also often a concern, but as Joomla! is
distrivuted under the GPL, it is free as are most
extension. Joomla!'s flexibilty and support for
extensions makes it perfect for churches and
other religious groups.

Try:

Religious groups have different needs than
businesses. The solution needs to be simple
allowing people with varying skill
levels to become involved. They need flexibility to
show everthing from articles,
contact lists, maps, to downloadable sermons.
Cost is often a concern, but since Joomla! is
distributed under GPL, it is free. Joomla!'s flexibilty and support
makes it perfect for churches and
other religious groups.

Just a quick post again on the free concept - the GPL does not prevent charging for distribution, so, I would encourage inclusion of the four freedoms the GPL does provide (see my link from above.) It's great to say that Joomla! is free of charge, but drive home the benefits of the free (liberty) aspects the GPL allows.

Thanks for considering,
Amy

Thanks Dan,

I really like your rewording and condensing of that para. I updated to be almost exactly the same.

Your idea of a door really got me thinking, and I like it but how about a gate?
Maybe like a nice fence with a gate and the gate hanging open with a Joomla! logo waiting on the other side?
I shall whip something up.

RE: Amy
Yes, I see what you are saying. Will think about that and see if I can reword and add to try and get that across.

Cheers,
James

Ohk, updated version here...

Changes
- Front Cover Panel - now has pretty image (FYI made using Fireworks and is composed of vectors)
- Back Panel - now has note saying "This document is subject to the Joomla! Electronic Documentation License"
- Panel "1" - For Worship - updated this para so text isn't crowding the logo
- Panel "4" - Removed the quote placeholder and enlarged screenshot and flipped the screenshot (V1.3)

I have not made changes to mention GPL. I am not sure how to work that in but I am sure either I will think of something or people will suggest something.

Apart from the 2 changes I mention I will make. Is everything good? I think it i pretty close to done.

DOWNLOAD V 1.2: http://rapidshare.com/files/73923249/Joomla__for_Worship_V1.2.pdf.html (453 kB)
DOWNLOAD V 1.3: http://rapidshare.com/files/73925389/Joomla__for_Worship_V1.3.pdf.html (440 kB) <------ This is the most recent

Cheers,
James

Hi,

I have looked over the version uploaded available from the above post. I think "V 1.3" (numbered so I can keep track of things) is essentially done. I know it would be great to mention the GPL, but (a) can't really find a place for it, and (b) I don't know many people in religous circles who would have a clue what GPL is. I think to get across the importance of this would require more words than we have space for.

But, of course, if you can see somewhere to slot it in, by all means let me know.

Cheers,
James

P.S. The next version will essentially be my "final" submission for this task, well at least I hope so. It will be clearly marked for what it is

Looks good, James. Be careful about the colors on fornt back and middle. The Joomla balck front suggests a rather have content and might scare people off. Also some other points about 3-folds you can find at this post

Good luck.

Hi,

Thanks for you input. Regarding colours, they are the colours found in the "Joomla Brand Handbook" for consistencies sake. I am not sure that I follow what you are saying regarding the front cover. I can't see how the black would be percieved as "scary".

Your points on bi-folds (tri panel) brochures were appreciatted.

Cheers,
James

Yes, if it is in the brandbook, one cannot argue right?
I was just thinking that when I see a stack of different brochures, I will not look at the black coloured onse but at the more colourful.
(The teacher at the PR course told me so )
But it was just a remark.

Ahk, I see what you are saying.

I personally am not a big fan of black, but I thought it looked quite good and caught ones eye. I could try white, but that I think will come out a tad bland.

Thanks. Your input is greatly appreciatted!

Cheers,
James

James -

I'm going to have a number of picky things here, but, it's good work. I like it very much. Personally, I am a fan of black. I think it's striking. I have heard a number of experts recommend against it though.

The Joomla! sign behind the fence and on the grass does not meet the Logo guidelines. It has to be on a solid background with ample room around it. But - honestly - you don't need it there - three are too many. The gate, lovely lawn and sun are beautiful. Pull it off the lawn and see what you think.

How nice! How welcoming --> Visit us today...

Again, same comment --> We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Word choice --> Joomla!'s wide and friendly community is waiting for you.

We are not all fat. ;) Consider diverse, friendly ?

Spelling and sadly, false --> Visit our website and wander over to the forums where all you questions will be asnwered.

We certainly do not answer them all. We try to help!

Never forget ! with Joomla!

spelling --> Religious groups have different needs tha businesses.

Continue to object. As written, this is incorrect --> Cost is often a concern, but since Joomla! is distributed under GPL, it is free.

The GPL does not mean free of charge. Just free, as in freedom. Consider wording this way:

Joomla! is distributed under GPL, so you are free to study, adapt, change and distribute your work. There is no charge to download and use Joomla!.

In the Presbyterian Church example, you go from talking about "them" to "we." Stay consistent.

Extensions - very well down. Simple. Clear. Non-intimidating. Thanks!

How Joomla! works section --> having to worrying (no) - having to worry (perhaps) - worrying (better still)

Slight change - "Add Content", - "Add Content," (comma placement)

Close - almost there!
Amy

Edit - James - I forgot to mention one last thing. I do not believe it will print and fold correctly. Or, am I wrong on that? (I didn't print it.) But, you might want to test it out and see if it folds like a trifold and opens, revealing the contents as you hoped. Thanks again!