In the Emacs Berlin meeting today, we noticed several items that might be improved in the manual.

- Section 13.18. 1: Bare HTML may be better placed under Section 13.9 HTML Export.  The information in this section appears unrelated to Exporting in non-Org buffers.  In fact,  the settings given for a minimal HTML export do not apply when converting a region.  For example, when converting a region containing an Org table to HTML, a preamble is not inserted even when the variable `org-html-preamble` is t.

https://orgmode.org/manual/Bare-HTML.html

Proposed solution: Move Section 13.18.1 nearer the sections on HTML export.

- Section 13.18: Export in Foreign Buffers

The section uses the term "foreign buffer" without providing a definition.  It appears to mean a buffer without "org-mode" enabled.  The section describes functions which allow users to write Org mode syntax in non-Org buffers and use various functions to convert the Org syntax to other syntaxes, like HTML, Markdown, etc.

https://orgmode.org/manual/Export-in-Foreign-Buffers.html

Proposed solution: Change wording from "foreign buffers" to "Convert Region" and "non-Org" buffer.   The functionality is really about conversion rather than anything to do with non-Org buffers.  If fact, Org respects users' freedom to run the program as they wish–it does not prevent them from converting Org formatted text within an Org buffer to a non-Org format, no matter how absurd it may appear :)

- Section 13.18: Export in Foreign Buffers

There was confusion caused by the function names.  Specifically, the "namespace" (such as "org-ascii-" or "org-texinfo-") is confusing to users who are not familiar with Org function naming conventions. For example, one participant thought `org-ascii-convert-region-to-utf8` might convert non-utf8 ascii to utf8 and was confused why `org-texinfo-convert-region-to-texinfo` would convert texinfo to texinfo.  Of course, this is not a correct understanding of the function behavior.

https://orgmode.org/manual/Export-in-Foreign-Buffers.html

Proposed solution: Clarify the overall purpose of the functions.  Another solution could be to make an aside and clarify what is meant by "Org export back end".  For example, change

"The export back-ends in Org often include..."

to 

"The export back-ends in Org (for example, Org ASCII or Org HTML) often include..."

However, my hope is that the changes I made with regard to "foreign buffers" also clarifies the purpose and use of functions listed in this section.

These changes are given in the attached patches.   If there are no suggested improvements, I could merge them in.  Please let me know your thoughts.