Question: saving or storing comments and info from SMEs

[Gayle Hoffman <Gayle_Hoffman -at- SGSGROUP -dot- COM>]

Hello everyone,

Question:  Do you save or store hard copy or online review comments and
      info from SMEs?  If yes, then how or for how long?

We have the typical, difficult and stubborn SMEs, programmers and support
      people, who have been reviewing hard copies of the user manuals and
      we are trying to get them to write their comments down or use insert
      comments in Word.  I have been keeping these because sometimes they
      say we have not done the needed editing.  It also makes it possible
      to keep records of who said what. It can also show how much or how
      often changes have been made to the same chapter/modules during the
      documentation cycle.

What do you do if they refuse to write down their comments or use the
      online editing features?  We also continuously have the problem they
      start making the changes in the documents themselves or MISusing our
      templates and destroying our layout and style by cutting and pasting
      from our documents.  Their justification is that we don't have time
      to do everything they are demanding at the moment they are demanding
      it. How would you handle these SME 'crimes'?  I am thinking about
      password protecting all our files from now on because they are
      interrupting the overall documentation process and cycle by doing
      this.

Any advice is welcome especially to get us one step ahead of the SMEs,
      instead always being one step behind.

Thanks,
Gayle