Adding a Custom Tutorial

[kettenmaradtunk]

Hi Everyone,

I want to include my own tutorial in the Help\Tutorials drop-down menu. I can't find the current tutorials in the Preferences xml, so I guess there must be another way around to do this.

Can you please help me how and where to include the svg file of the tutorial?

Best regards,

Csaba

[Moini]

Hi,

for whom will these tutorials be?

If they are of general interest, please consider uploading to Inkscape.org: https://inkscape.org/en/gallery/=tutorial/

If you think it should be included with Inkscape, please create a bug report at: https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape and ask for inclusion (but you'd need to rewrite it to allow for translations).

Else, you'd need to compile your own Inkscape version, and edit a couple of files before doing so.

[brynn]

I've asked how to add more tutorials for the Help menu in the past.  It was one of my first posts on an Inkscape mailing list.  Someone did answer, but it was pretty flakey.  Something like, 'yeah I need to do that someday' (meaning make it possible for people to add more tutorials).  I don't remember who answered - it was a few years ago.

In my opinion, this is an oversight which needs some attention.  But that kind of response did not inspire me to make a bug report.  It inspired me instead to double-down on what I think is this site's best feature (see the Home tab)  https://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php.

You're certainly welcome to contribute to our small collection of tutorials (IC Tutorials tab).  If you'd like, you can PM me a tutorial of yours, so I can review it.  If it's clear you know what you're talking about, I'll promote you to IC Mentor (member group), which will give you access to this site's tutorial making features.

However, using the Inkscape website's gallery feature (InkSpaces) would give your tutorials the biggest audience possible.  There are some drawbacks though.  If you want your tutorials to have working links, I think the only way to do it would be to upload PDF versions.  (I guess PDF is accepted, but I haven't actually tried it.)  Otherwise use PNG or SVG.  Or upload some kind of thumbnail to represent your tutorials, and link to them, wherever you have them hosted.  You're welcome to host them here if you like.  But dropbox or imgh.us (which is an image host that accepts SVG files) or any other place would work just as well.

[kettenmaradtunk]

Hello,

Thank you very much for your answers and sorry about the late reply.

Actually, the tutorial I want to add is not of general interest. I've been trying to insert it in the shared/Tutorials folder in Program Files, but that wouldn't make it appear in the drop-down menu. I would like to know if this is possible at all.

Best regards,

Csaba

[Moini]

As I said, it's possible if you modify the Inkscape source code and compile your own version.

[brynn]

Ooh, now I understand!  So when you place an SVG file in share/tutorials, it does not show up in Help menu > Tutorials?

I agree with you, that it seems like it should.  However, when I look in share/tutorials, there's a README file with some interesting info.  I don't know how current that is, and I've never tried to find such a DocBook file in the SVN.

I would try asking either on the User or development mailing list, or maybe development IRC  https://inkscape.org/en/community/.

Oops, Moini posted while I was typing.  I think the SVN is either the source code, or it's where you get the source code.

[Moini]

It's called bazaar by now, and will soon be git.
SVN is the name of a version control system Inkscape once used, but doesn't for a long time.

There are several places in the code that would need to be adapted, as far as I can judge.

[brynn]

There are several places in the code that would need to be adapted, as far as I can judge.

I don't follow you Moini.  Adapted for what?  Do you mean that this DocBook thing is so old that it needs updating, to be able to use it with Inkscape, in its now current state?

Do you think it would be worth a bug report, to ask for that README file to be updated?

[Moini]

Do you mean that this DocBook thing is so old that it needs updating

- No (well, it could use updating). The DocBook thing would only be needed if you want to translate the contents, so only for the official tutorials that will be included with Inkscape.
But Inkscape needs to be made aware of the added tutorial explicitly, to add it to its menues, as far as I understand the code. It doesn't just pick them up from the directory, as it does with filters, templates, etc.

[brynn]

Ooohh ok, I understand now.  Thanks for explaining