Skip to content

Apache OpenOffice Technical Editing

One-sentence summary:
Technical editing portfolio sample demonstrating revisions to Apache OpenOffice user documentation to improve clarity, consistency, usability, and technical accuracy.

Overview

This project showcases technical editing work completed on Apache OpenOffice user guides. Rather than authoring documentation from scratch, this sample focuses on improving existing end-user content through revision, organization, and editorial refinement. The work includes edits to major user guides for Calc 4.1, Draw 4.1, Impress 4.1, and Math 4.1, with attention to readability, consistency, structure, and published documentation quality.

Audience

  • Hiring managers reviewing technical writing and editing portfolios
  • Documentation teams
  • Technical communication professionals

Documentation Goal

The goal of this project is to demonstrate technical editing skills in a real documentation environment. It shows how editorial work can improve the quality, usability, and consistency of published end-user documentation while preserving the original technical meaning.

What This Sample Demonstrates

  • Technical editing for end-user documentation
  • Consistent editing across large documentation sets
  • Copyediting and style correction
  • Structural and content editing
  • Usability-focused documentation revision

Editing Focus

  • Clarity
  • Consistency
  • Structure
  • Grammar and style corrections
  • Terminology improvements
  • Usability improvements

Tools / Methods

  • OpenDocument Text (.odt) files
  • Apache OpenOffice documentation
  • Microsoft Word
  • GitHub
  • Copyediting
  • Structural editing

Challenges / Writing Considerations

A key challenge in this project was editing large documentation sets while maintaining consistency across substantial user guides with established structure, terminology, and formatting patterns. The work also required balancing technical accuracy with readability so that edits improved flow and usability without changing intended meaning. Because this is an editing sample rather than an original writing sample, another consideration was how to present editorial contributions clearly through representative edits, source files, final documents, and published content.

Deliverables

  • Edited user guide samples
  • Representative before-and-after edits
  • Source and final documentation files
  • Links to published Apache OpenOffice Wiki content

Outcome / Why It Matters

This sample demonstrates the value of technical editing as a core documentation skill. It demonstrates my ability to strengthen existing documentation through revisions, consistency, and usability improvements, and highlights the editorial judgment required to enhance published content without altering its technical intent. For hiring managers and documentation teams, this project provides evidence of practical editing skills applied in a real-world documentation environment.

View the Project

Technical editing, copyediting, content editing, structural editing, end-user documentation/Users/macmike/Desktop/Cleanup By Project/OpenOffice/Links/Project Link/Apache OpenOffice Technical Editing - Michael Scarborough Technical Writing Portfolio.webloc