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Subject:Version Control Software From:Maurice Rose <Maurice -dot- Rose -at- SAVILLEMAIL -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 10 Aug 1999 10:34:52 +0100
Has anyone come across version control software that works well with Word
files
and online help projects? I couldn't find much information on this topic in
the
tech whirler archive.
I tried out VSS and a couple of other tools a few months ago, and one of
the
other writers here was required by the development team to use Continuus on
a
certain project, but none of these really suit our needs. Apart from the
problem of additional overhead, which apparently is not negligible with
Continuus, they all shared two other problems:
1) Most were oriented to flat text such as source code, so that although
they
could tell you that a Word file had changed, they couldn't identify the
changes.
You had to check the files out and use the Word Compare feature.
2) Because they store everything in a compressed format, our Help compiler
RoboHelp could not compile a project unless every file was checked out. This
makes the tools only useful for large milestones such as a full release.
That
being the case, I figured we were just as well off zipping the files and
dropping them onto a CD.
Most of our projects tend to be single-writer projects, so version control
during development isn't a problem. However, sometimes developers contribute
directly to the more technical documents and that can get messy. Also, our
online help projects sometimes involve multiple writers working with a large
number of files. We're also now running into the problem of trying to
retrofit
updates from a core product into earlier customized versions at client sites
(the updates usually issue from another office, compounding the problem).
Any tips or recommendations would be appreciated. I'll compile any replies
that
are sent directly to me and post a summary to the list.
Thanks,
Maurice Rose
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