Re: Troubleshooting Vs Release Notes

Subject: Re: Troubleshooting Vs Release Notes
From: Sarah Lee Hauslinger <slhauslinger -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: Sion Lane <slane -at- ubq -dot- thrupoint -dot- net>
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:32:24 -0800

My take is that if it always happens no matter what, it's a known
issue, which belongs in release notes.

Regarding the sometimes-and-sometimes-not scenario, compiling the
details in a troubleshooting section is just one approach.
Alternatively, though, you might consider weaving the info snippets
into the body of the guide in the most relevant locations as alerts
(Note/Important/Tip, etc.) Seems to me that from a usability
standpoint, providing the details of the "gotchas" right at the point
where they could crop up is mayhap a better option, as it doesn't
require users to jump to a different topic when something suddenly
doesn't behave as expected.

Hope this helps.


Sarah Lee Hauslinger
slhauslinger -at- gmail -dot- com


On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 6:58 AM, Sion Lane <slane -at- ubq -dot- thrupoint -dot- net> wrote:
> I'm wondering if anyone has any guidelines they use to decide what goes
> into the Troubleshooting section of a guide and what is more appropriate in
> the known issues/limitations section of a release note.
>
> At the moment, I'm working on the theory of 'if it only happens
> sometimes/on some devices/on some configurations, it goes in
> Troubleshooting' and 'if it always happens whatever you do or whatever
> you're using, it goes in the release note'.
>
> Anyone got any better ideas?
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References:
Troubleshooting Vs Release Notes: From: Sion Lane

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