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Recently I've been rewriting software requirements that haven't been updated since 1998 or so. In addition to testing as I go to make sure the apps work the way I think they do, I'm bouncing the requirements against the info in my help files as I go. About a day into this work, I started a file of the help topics I need to correct when I'm done with my current task. Initially, I was appalled at the volume of errors I was finding in the help; I'm now focused on finding a patsy to take the blame for mistakes that are indisputably my own doing. HA. Just kidding.
Although I haven't manipulated my help content in a different application, I have been seeing the help in a new context and it's been an eye-opening experience. Not only have I identified some long-standing errors, but I also see some things I can do differently to make the help even better than it already is.
Martha
John Posada wrote:
<snippage>
So...my question. How many of you take the data from your documentation,
massage it in a different application than what it was authored in, and if
you do, what have you found?
Do you periodically check existing content when not initiated by a change in
the subject being written about?
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