RE: Documenting incremental releases in a What's New

["Ben Kovitz" <bkovitz -at- nethere -dot- com>]

Rowena Hart wrote:

> For the minor release, should I:
>
> - keep all of the 6.0 information and tack on a
>   6.1 section at the end of the What's New chapter?
> - delete all of the 6.0 information and just
>   have 6.1 information in the What's New chapter?
>
> I can think of at least one argument for each
> case. However, it would help me to know how other
> writers would handle this issue.

Here's a possible way to resolve the dilemma:

When 6.1 comes out, will your audience likely be familiar with the new
stuff in 6.0?  If so, you could leave it out.  If not, you could put it
in.

The risk, of course, is that by making the section longer, you increase
the probability that people will skip it entirely.

Thinking outside the box a moment, if you *really* want the users to
know about certain things that were new in 6.0, you could put those in a
quick reference card along with all the other most-important
information.  In that context, you wouldn't have to indicate the version
they came out in, of course.

Ben Kovitz


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