An excellent suggestion - I'm for it. I would fine tune it with one
addition:
Whenever a significant number of these minor revisions have been made, the
entire manual should be downloadable including all of the minor revisions
made since the last complete version. Those who want to ignore the
"complete" download may continue just doing the minor revisions, ad
infinitum. Those who are used to working with technical documentation often
refer to the "minor revisions" as "temporary revisions".
73,
Riki, 4X4NJ
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Till <wtill@bordercity.com>
To: <trlog@contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, December 10, 1999 7:40 AM
Subject: [TRLog] Manual suggestion
>
> Hello fellow TRLog users:
>
> I have a suggestion about the manual. Would it be possible to set it up
similar
> to the way that Canadian military manuals (and probably lots of others)
are
> done?
>
> The pages are all numbered as usual, then any time any page is amended or
any
> new page is added, an amendment list is made up and dated listing the
changed
> and added pages. These are mailed out as a package to the manual holders
and the
> recipient goes through his manual, removing the pages that have been
amended,
> inserting the new ones and checking off the amendment list. Each manual
has an
> amendment sheet in the front with columns where the amendment numbers and
dates
> can be entered. Thus anyone can pick up the manual and tell, with a glance
at
> the amendment sheet, if the manual is up to date.
>
> This procedure could be easily adapted to the process we use now of
downloading
> from the Internet. It just needs a current amendment file to be posted so
that
> it would be easy to check to see if your manual is up to date, and if not,
to
> download the amended and added pages to update. That way it would not be
> necessary to download or read online the whole manual to see what changes,
if
> any, have been made.
>
> Considering the frequent manual changes , most of us don't print the
manual very
> often. We might download it onto our hard disks and then when a problem
arises,
> we browse the manual with Adobe Acrobat. I may be old fashioned, but I
have much
> better luck with a printed manual that I can hold in my hands and read,
but if
> the whole thing can become obsolete with every change, printing it is not
> feasible.
>
> Our manual guru, to whom we owe a vote of thanks, would probably be able
to make
> changes more often using this amendment system. If inserting a paragraph
or
> diagram caused a page to overflow, the extra could be added on an added
page
> inserted as, for example, page 22A, so as not to throw out the numbering
> sequence. Addition of the added page would be listed on the amendment list
and
> the manual's amendment sheet.
>
> Now tell me that it is being done that way already (?) Comments?
>
>
> 73
>
> Bill/VE5FN
>
>
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>
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