With Drupal 7 down to 30 critical bugs, and Drupalcon Copenhagen just around the corner, it's only a matter of time before Drupal 7.0 ships. We want to make sure our Drupal 7 documentation is in great shape for this fantastic new release, and the Documentation Team could really use YOUR help getting there!

What's done so far

We had some awesome people step up to help with updating the Help pages in Drupal 7 over the winter. Since then, Jennifer Hodgdon (jhodgdon) from Poplarware, Lee Hunter (leehunter) who's a technical editor for a Canadian government agency, and myself (arianek) have been doing our best to keep things rolling along, but we definitely need more people helping out to keep the documentation up to date with all the development that's going on.

We've made some decent progress on updating core module pages, and reviewing the install guide and upgrade guide (thank you to the few who've been able to help!), but there is still lots to do.

Who's managing what

API documentation: Jennifer has been managing mainly the API and in-code docs (issue queue) and they're in decent shape at this point, but if you're a coder looking to help with docs, that's definitely the place to go (and the person to contact).

Handbook structure: Lee has been focusing on trying to clean up and reorganize the online Handbooks, as well as helping out with updating core Handbook docs for Drupal 7. If you have questions about where to find a section of the handbook, or a particular page's placement, contact Lee!

Drupal 7 Handbook updates and general management: I've been focusing on updating core docs for Drupal 7, and managing and addressing smaller issues in the main Docs issue queue (for the online docs).

Not only could we use a hand keeping up with the general day to day issues in the main docs queue, but we definitely need a good charge at getting the Drupal 7 core docs updated (never mind all the various contrib docs). As the developers are madly working to launch Drupal 7, we're playing catch up with the docs, and need to get ready to help new or existing Drupal users make the upgrade.

If any of these areas sound like something you're interested in helping with, please track us down! We can't do this all by ourselves, we need your help!

How you can help with Drupal 7 Docs

Jennifer and I have been maintaining a high priority to-do page just so that you can see both the main Handbook and API needs at a glance. But as far as the online docs go, there are only 15 important but fairly easy to address critical issues left to close for Drupal 7 core docs.

Not all of these need a high technical skill level (though it doesn't hurt); mainly all you need to be able to do is install Drupal 7 somewhere and review whether the current docs match or note what's missing, and then comment on the according issue. Better yet, you can make edits right to the docs page (aside from a few that only Docs Admins can access), and then post a comment on the issue for someone to review your revisions.

For instance, updating the core modules pages is more of a time consuming than challenging task, while writing the pages for entirely new modules is a bit more challenging, as many have no existing docs outside of the Help hook in the module.

Basically all of this needs to get done, and every little bit helps! The main install guide issue is really close to being closable, just needs another review and we can mark it fixed.

What's in it for you?

Massive Drupal karma!!! Not enough motivation?

Contributing to Drupal Docs is a fantastic way to learn more about how specific parts of Drupal works (you have to spend time learning so that you can document). Not only that, but as an absolute beginner, this is a quick way to get mentoring from some of the brightest core contributors around. 

As an Open Source project, everyone needs to do their part; there is no "they" when you think to yourself "I wish they'd write some better docs for that". They is YOU! Most of us make our living using this free software and building things with it, so it's important to set aside time to help build, test, and document as much as you can!

Did I mention it's fun? Ok, maybe it takes a certain type of person to enjoy writing technical documentation, but I love it and have made great friends and connections through this work. I actually find it sort of soothing working on the Handbooks when I can squeeze it in (which is not often enough these days)...yes, really, all that nice structured consistently styled text!

Need help getting started? Want to contribute to Docs in a more general sense?

• Join the Documentation Team group on g.d.o.
• Read more about how to contribute to Drupal Docs.
• Read general information about the Documentation Team and what we do.
• Get familiar with the online docs styleguide.
• If you're a total beginner, start with issues tagged "novice" or rolling in comments.
• Follow @drupaldocs on Twitter.
• Get on IRC on the #drupal-docs and #drupal-contrib channels, and ask how you can help.
• Host a Docs sprint! Ask around in your community if there are existing contributors who can help show you the basics.
• Keep an eye out for announcements for Docs sprints and BOF sessions at DrupalCon CPH!

Drupal version: Drupal 7.x