Re: Release Notes

Subject: Re: Release Notes
From: "Dana Worley" <dana -at- campbellsci -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:18:45 -0600

In the help file and the manual we have a "What's new" topic that
briefly indicates the new features of the software.

However, our "release notes" are contained in a readme.txt file. It
succinctly states what bug fixes and enhancements were made and
known issues for each module in the software. There are no screen
shots -- it is a text file.

The average user should be just fine with a "What's new" section.
Only your "power users" care anything about the *real* release
notes, and IMO, a Notepad readable file is just fine for them (note:
most users aren't too lazy to read the notes, it's just not important to
them).

Something we have just started is using this text file to populate a
data base. This database is searchable from our web site. You can
look at all the changes made in a version, or you can enter a search
term and see what changes have been made to that feature across
one or more versions. We haven't gotten much feedback on this yet
to know whether or not it is useful to our customers, but I assume it
is (at least to the "power users" :)

As always, YMMV :)

Dana W.

On Wednesday, August 22, 2007, Zen C wrote:

> Any suggestions on this comment ? Do release notes usually go out with a lot
> of details or is a brief outline of what is changed only?
***************************
Dana Worley
Software Product Manager/Manager, Software Support Group
Campbell Scientific, Inc.
Microsoft MVP, Windows Help


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References:
Release Notes: From: Zen C

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