Re: Differentiating between software versions in help articles

Subject: Re: Differentiating between software versions in help articles
From: Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>
To: TECHWR-L Writing <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2015 12:47:50 -0700

Totally agree. Maintenance nightmare, almost certain to lead to errors
accumulating over time.

If all the help is on the same web server, the base URL should
indicate the release version.

A common practice is for no version number in the base URL to bring up
the latest version.

It's a plus to provide a pop-up menu of links to the corresponding
topics in another release.

On Fri, Mar 13, 2015 at 6:26 AM, David Artman <david -at- davidartman -dot- com> wrote:
> I think that trying to indicate applicable version in the title will
> become a nightmare. What happens once you're at v4.5--you going to have
> article titles that read "Fooing the bar (1.0, 2.0, 2.2, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5,
> 4.0, 4.5)"? What happens when v3.5's "Foo" function is slightly
> different from v3.0? And more importantly: *Who cares* what versions a
> given article applies to, if users tend to only have one version
> installed and that version consistently points to its correct topics?
> Your manager's instinct to show all versions might be a case of one's
> knowing how the sausage is made leading one to think sausage eaters
> want to know (they really, really don't!).
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References:
RE: Differentiating between software versions in help articles: From: David Artman

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