Re: docs on frozen CDs - how to handle updates to docs?

["Mike Starr" <mikestarr-techwr-l -at- writestarr -dot- com>]

It would seem to me in most cases that software changes outpace 
documentation changes. If your company insists on using CDs as a 
distribution mechanism for the documentation, what do they do with updates 
to the software? If the software is automatically updated online, then the 
update install program can install the documentation as well.

Mike
--
Mike Starr                            WriteStarr Information Services
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Sam TechWriter" <samtechwriter -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "techwr-l" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 11:53 AM
Subject: docs on frozen CDs - how to handle updates to docs?

> I'm looking for best practices for notifying customers that the documents 
> on a CD have been updated, and for providing those updated documents. (The 
> CDs we distribute to customers combine software with docs; we are expected 
> to use the CDs we built with the original docs.)
>
> Customers can access the latest documents on our website, but right now we 
> have the problem of inconsistent document delivery, in which the CD 
> contains old copies of the docs. We have never had to update documents 
> this extensively and I'm wondering if there are alternatives to publishing 
> an "Updated Documentation" CD for distribution with the existing CD. I'm 
> also wondering if anyone on the list has used this approach and found 
> problems...it occurs to me that the update CD and the original CD might 
> get separated at some point and the next user down the road might use the 
> original CD with the old docs, unaware of any update. I wonder what other 
> scenarios I haven't thought of yet! Or maybe I'm just making up problems 
> that don't exist...?
>
> Has anyone on the list dealt with updates to docs on frozen CDs before?
>
> Thanks in advance!
> "Sam TechWriter"
>
>
>
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