RE: Review process for online help

["Gilbert, Brian" <BGILBER -at- transunion -dot- com>]

<snip>
What have you found to be the best and most efficient way to elicit
feedback from subject matter experts? Do you distribute materials to be
reviewed as a printed document, a PDF, or some other format?  (I ask
this because one developer likes to have a paper copy so he can actually
write notes on it.) Any suggestions about useful review processes would
be greatly appreciated.
</snip>

Donna,

If you are asking SMEs to review the content to ensure that it is
correct, I highly recommend providing an electronic version in Word or
PDF (track changes is a great feature). If the reviewer sends me an
electronic file, great. If it is handwritten notes, fine. Just as long
as they spend some time reviewing the material.

I have concerns for sending the compiled version...SMEs tend to focus on
formatting and links, not content. There's also the frustration
level...didn't I already see this content, how can I be sure that I
reviewed all of the content.

After you get the comments incorporated, you can ask for a functional
review (check the links, style sheet, etc.). I recommend having someone
other than the SME review the compiled version. At this point the
content should be correct, and I find that I get more comments on
wordsmithing.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help  
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

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