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It reminds me of when I spent 3 days formatting a 40 page document in Frame,
handed it to the VP Engineering, and he screamed "I want it to look like a UNIX
MAN page!!". (I redefined all the C and P tags and wammo...a MAN page!)
Who are you doing the RNs for...Engineering/Development or Marketing? Yes,
Release Notes are supposed to be somewhat dry...but I've found that many people
don't know what an RN really is or the (somewhat) standard sections in it.
Unfortunately, if it is for m,arketing and the Marketing department thinks it's
a marketing tool or wants to use it as such (regardless of what they call it),
then regardless of what it is supposed to look like, you're going to have to do
it their way.
Remember...you're writing for your users, not for yourself and ALWAYS get a
signoff on the first document before devoting gobs of time on a bunch of
documents to have it kicked back..
<sigh>
John
Marc Brooks wrote:
> Hi:
>
> I was just told that my release notes don't have enough pizzazz (or sex
> appeal). Have I lost all grasp on time and space. I thought release notes
> were supposed to be as conservative as possible. Does one mod get 100pt
> type just because it took 400 hours of development time. Should release
> notes be considered a marketing tool?
>
> Help.. I'm at the end of my rope!
>
--
John Posada, Technical Writer
Bellcore, where Customer Satisfaction is our number one priority mailto:john -at- tdandw -dot- com mailto:jposada -at- notes -dot- cc -dot- bellcore -dot- com
phone(w) 732-699-3077 phone(h) 732-2910-7811
alpha-pager: 800-864-8444 pin 1857522 http://www.tdandw.com
email pager: mailto:1857522 -at- pagemart -dot- net
My opinions are mine, and neither you nor my company can take credit for
them.
"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish,
and he will sit in a boat and smoke cigars all day."
"The only perfect document I ever created is still on my hard drive."
