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Re: Document Revision History - Front or Back of the Doc?

Subject: Re: Document Revision History - Front or Back of the Doc?
From: Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
To: Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2012 08:30:27 -0700

That's probably true if all your users always only want the most recent revision. But sometimes, different users have different versions of the product and need to know which revision of the document applies to their version. You can usually recognize these cases by revision histories that say things like "added/deleted instructions for Module XXX," or "complies with Specification XXX," or "For use with serial numbers XXX-XXX and above." And sometimes, the history is just mandated by industry regulations.

Gene Kim-Eng


On 7/20/2012 11:53 PM, Keith Hood wrote:

My take is, why bother having it at all? Why, really, would anyone care how many changes the doc has gone through, and exactly what changes have been made? What does a revision history tell the reader beyond the fact that you didn't get it right the first time?


What a reader wants to know most of all is that the doc is complete and accurate NOW. Having a long document history is contraindicated if you really want customer confidence. I figure the longer your revision history, the more likely people are to wonder why did you make so many mistakes and why did you have to go through so many redesigns to get it right? And the more entries there are in the revision history, the more likely they are to wonder if you really *have* finally gotten it right.


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References:
Document Revision History - Front or Back of the Doc?: From: Ron Hearn
Re: Document Revision History - Front or Back of the Doc?: From: Keith Hood

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