FW: Implementing Version Control for Documentation

["Steve Hudson" <steve -at- wright -dot- com -dot- au>]

Sure. Heres the gist of it.

1. Find yourself a server. Ideally, get a doco account to access it
physically, but this isn't so necc.

2. Install VSS on the server. Not 100% necc but sure is faster when it comes
time to reorg your db. Install VSS on each target machine.

3. Create a directory, call it Development

4. Under here, create a directory for every separate project. Ensure related
material, where possible, stays in the same DB - especially if you may be
sharing files between areas (a single sourcing trick) As an example, I use
Internal (templates, procs, P&P etc), Eyespring Studio (which comprises of
Photo, Studio and Studio Pro) and Eyespring Server (which consists of the
personal, personal pro, SOHO and Enterprise editions)

5. In each of these directories, create a new VSS database. The Help tells
you one way, I prefer to copy over everything from the default Common
database it installs with the software and tailor the users file myself
byhand. Once you have one set of user files and dirs right, you can just
copy them to a new db.

6. On your desktop, create multiple shortcuts for VSS and modify them to
include a target DB: eg

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\Common\VSS\win32\SSEXP.EXE"
"-p$/Internal" "-s\\Server\Development\Internal"

This command opens the VSS directory called Internal in the database stored
in directory \\Server\Development\Internal

7. Find a directory to use as your VSS checkout root. You will checkout
files from the server db onto your machine in local dirs to work on.

8. Edit your users profile on the server VSS db (by hand) to read something
like this:

[$/]
Dir (YOUR_USERNAME) = Your_Root_VSS_Path

This will set your working directory for the VSS root dir to match the
pathname. In my case, I use a partition, H to store all my docs.

9. Now we identify the project, in VSS create a dir and give it the project
name. Essentially we give every project the same root, then make a top-level
directory to contain the project. We avoid keeping multiple projects in one
file to reduce liablities and repairs, despite the fact you can.

10. In VSS still, create all the subdirs beneath this top level as required.
Again, my eg is (ignore periods):

/$
.(-) Internal
. |--- Designs
. |--- Forms
. |--- Global Templates
. |--- Intranet
. |--- Logos

etc


When you want to synch yourself to the db, do a Get Latest on the dir.
Checkout, edit, checkin with a comment. Label version signoffs. Regularly
run db repairs and reorgs. Irregularly snapshot and destroy histories.

Steve Hudson , HDK List MVP
Wright Technologies Pty Ltd (Aus)   EyeSpring - the future of graphics has
been created.


From: scott -dot- parsons -at- ps -dot- net

Hi,
We are planning to implement Visual SourceSafe for organizing our
documentation. Our company is new to SourceSafe. Can anyone provide tips
for me to organize documentation projects?
We currently use Word docs, but are converting to Framemaker soon.
Eventually, we also want to include our RoboHelp Classic docs.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Collect Royalties, Not Rejection Letters! Tell us your rejection story when you 
submit your manuscript to iUniverse Nov. 6 -Dec. 15 and get five free copies of 
your book. What are you waiting for? http://www.iuniverse.com/media/techwr

Have you looked at the new content on TECHWR-L lately?
See http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ and check it out.

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.