Re: Updating Hard Copies of Existing Manuals

[Dan BRINEGAR <vr2link -at- VR2LINK -dot- COM>]

[The following is not intended to lambaste Kelly...]

Rule 4: No one *EVER* posts change-pages. <smile>

>My company is implementing a new program in which we send our customers
>pages of information for each software release. The customer can then
>insert these pages into their existing documentation set (three-ring
>binder format). These pages will either replace existing pages, or will
>take the form of additional pages to be inserted .....

Interleaf, Frame, and Word all have features that handle "dotted" page
numbers.... for government proposals, insurance documentation, and the like
to maintain the flow between the change-page and the existing pages before
and after it [it's covered in the 870524.w Ileaf User's Guide Update
package on page 1197.aa].

No modern technical documentation should rely on this technique.  Tech Pubs
forcing customers to deal with change-pages is like Engineering forcing
users to edit .ini files to get the software running -- it doesn't work, we
know it doesn't work, it's thoughtless and rude,  and we've known for years
how to avoid this technique.

When I got out of the Army, and joined STC, (that big company's) managers
were among the loudest proponents of doing away with change-pages...  when
I finally got to work with those managers five years later, my task was
creating really spiffy supplement packages (change-pages bound together
nicely) but they were certain they'd be eliminating this practice Real Soon
Now... I guess they gave up and moved on....  like I did.

<stomping my little feet, realizing I'm much too hot on this topic and
asking myself for a vacation as soon as I get done with my current project
-- telling myself in a memo that I've already been paid for this project,
have already spent the money on bills and can't afford a vacation right
now, but that I'm doing a fine job.>

-------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Brinegar   Information Developer/Research Droid/Mac Guy
http://vr2link.com <-- under construction

Who said:
"I believe the only way to get the scale of change we really need is
to focus on educating citizens so they have the principles,
the framework and the tools necessary to effect change on their own."

djb -at- vr2link -dot- com     -- CCDB Vr2Link
                                   Performance S u p p o r t Svcs.

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