Re: Temporary items in technical documentation

[Bethany Haara <Bethany_Haara -at- MW -dot- 3COM -dot- COM>]

In response to Jon Herrera <jonherrera -at- YAHOO -dot- COM> on 10/08/98 03:40:23
PM


>I am working on a document set for a software product.  As I write
>documents, both the specs and the engineers identify certain features
>as temporary, that is, it would be great to have those features, but
>we're not sure if they're going to be in the final product.

Hi Jon!

My company will usually, send a Release note or Addendum with the
products if any features were added that didn't make into the manual. If
certain features will definitely be in the product, place those features in
 the manual.
For the time being, leave the "temporary" items out of the manual.
Depending on how
much time you have before you MUST send the manual to print, you may be
able to include
some of the temporary items in the manual. However, if you've already sent
the manual to
print, and other temporary items make it into the product,
place  them into a Release Note. You can change or revise the release note
up until the
last minute, since these are usually a little better than "photocopy"
quality. When the next release
is scheduled- you can include all features in the release note
into the manual.

I would shed some caution on Release Notes-- they can be cumbersome if
you have too many of them.  Most of the time they are loose (stapled, or
folded) sheets of paper, so if you have more than one Release Note, it
can become confusing.  If you will be doing frequent updates- it can be
a great way to include the last minute features!

Hope this helps!

Bethany


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