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May I raise a heretic question :
Is it mandatory to place a date on a document ?
The need is for the user to know whether his/her copy is
the current one.
This can be achieved either with dates, or with version
numbers (or both, of course).
None of these solutions give the user the absolute certainty
he holds the current version, unless the distribution process
compels him to acknowledge every update.
And the drawback of dates is that an "old" document
is more easily suspected of not being valid.
The debate about different dates on different pages
or sections can be transposed to version numbers.
Besides, you can add a greater level of detail
by providing a two-index version number :
- Each section has a version number AxBy,
where y is incremented for every minor change
and x for every major change.
- Each graphic embedded in the document has its own
version number AxBy.
- The document (i.e. the "shipping unit") has a global
version number CxDy.
--
Frederic Wronecki
France Telecom, Paris, France mailto:frederic -dot- wronecki -at- wanadoo -dot- fr
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