Re: maintaining a list of changes in User Guides between versions

[Svi Ben-Elya <svi -at- svi -dot- co -dot- il>]

Caroline,
There are really good reasons to keep track of changes made to
the documentation, at least for products under development.

When I work in FrameMaker I use a FrameScript that I wrote a
few years ago to embed dated Document Notes. It is documented
in a whitepaper on document management that I believe is still
posted on Techwr-l and microtype. If you have FrameScript I
can send you the script. It is really easy to use.

- Svi Ben-Elya -
svi -at- ieee -dot- org
www.elephant.org.il

P.S. You might want to check out the latest additions to the
elephant.org.il site - it's always changing.



---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2007 11:30:11 +0200
>From: "Caroline Tabach" <Caroline -at- radcom -dot- com>
>Subject: maintaining a list of changes in User Guides between
versions

>
>Beth,
>Actually, it is vaguely to do with a discussion of  some sort
of request from outside the company and this must have come up
as a requirement for documentation delivered. So I wondered,
âShould I be doing this? Will someone ask me to do this soon?
Is everyone doing it except me? If so, what will I answer when
they ask me to document changes in the UGs?â
>_____________________________________________________
>Message: 51
>Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2007 14:12:08 -0500
>From: Beth Agnew < >
>Subject: Re: maintaining a list of changes in User Guides between
>	versions.
>To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>Message-ID: <45C78188 -dot- 2040001 -at- senecac -dot- on -dot- ca>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
>Why do they need to keep track of these changes? It's additional 
>overhead to you in terms of your time and resources, do you
really want 
>to be doing that? It sounds like because they track changes
in the 
>product they think you should do it too. I have been asked to
keep such 
>a log before. I smile and say, "We don't do that." Are you
going to 
>track changes every time you do a spell check, fix some typos
-- 2 Feb 
>corrected 27 typos, or rework a sentence. No. (Gosh, at least
I hope 
>not!) So then you have to develop specifications of what
you'll track 
>and what you won't bother with. Track reworking a paragraph?
No. Track 
>moving chapters around? Track swapping in new graphics? It
can be 
>nightmare to have to account for all that.
>
>If they want to know if you've documented features X, Y and Z
in this 
>new version, it's easy enough to find in the publication
itself. If it's 
>changed in the product, they can assume it's changed in the 
>documentation. Of course, if something is missed that's not a
problem 
>tracking changes will help. Somewhere you'll probably have
notes about 
>what you were asked to do in the new version. With that, the
developers 
>readme that lists product changes, and the previous and
current versions 
>of the documentation, that should be sufficient. Use a
version control 
>system if you want to have a finer grained handle on what
details 
>changed version to version, including typos.
>
>When people don't understand what we do as techwriters, they
often ask 
>for things that work for other roles but not for ours. Just
say no. :-)
>--Beth
>
>______________________________________________________ 
>
>Caroline Tabach
>Technical/Marcom Writer
>
>
>                
>Fax:         +972 3 6474681
>Email:   caroline -at- radcom -dot- com
>www.radcom.com
>www.protocols.com
>
>
>
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