Re: Review process for online help

[Kathleen MacDowell <kathleen -at- writefortheuser -dot- com>]

Last place I worked we instituted a way to deal with repeated viewings--we
indicated which content was new (or changed) and which was not. The way I
did it was to make up a pdf copy with a line through the old content, none
through the new.

That helped speed up reviews and returns, and really improved the mood of
the reviewers, who had way too much on their hands. It was a little extra
work on my part, but I was happy to do anything to increase actual review
rather than rubber-stamping (or comments on language).

Note that sometimes they would notice things they had missed in their
earlier review, which was super.

I loathe change tracking in Word and would only use it if required by
company policy. That said, if possible, I would not use it for a permanent
document, only for one that was submitted for reviews. That copy could be
separately maintained for historical purposes, if necessary.

Brian's idea of separating the content review from the functional review
sounds like the most productive approach, to  me, if you have the manpower.
I doubt many of my past SMEs would have been pleased at the idea of having
to check links, though they would be happy to communicate it if they
encountered a bad one while working.

Regards,

Kathleen

On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 12:58 PM, Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>wrote:

> Brian Gilbert wrote:
>
> > SME ... didn't I already see this content
>
> Yes, you did. Twice. First time, if you recall, you missed a crucial
> error, where I'd left out a parameter to one of the options. The second
> time you caught that error, as well as where I'd written flies instead
> of files, but I'm sure there's still something else wrong in there. Our
> hit rate is still too high. Please read it again, again.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> 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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-- 
Kathleen MacDowell
www.writefortheuser.com
kathleen -at- writefortheuser -dot- com
kathleen -dot- eamd -at- gmail -dot- com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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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