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Revising Technical Document

Revising Technical Document

Revising Technical Document

(OP)
I am adding to a specification that has already been through the approval proccess and we are nearing the end of the project.  What is the best way to add to this so people realize what has changed?  I dont think clouding is appropriate for a document situation.  Bold lettering maybe?

RE: Revising Technical Document

Last place I worked would put a vertical line next to the altered text as I recall.

My current place doesn't really do anything except populate a small revision reason field which doesn't cover all but the simplest changes.

Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?

RE: Revising Technical Document

Use of vertical line (as KENAT suggests) is good, often we also use strikeout text for deleted items and underline for inserted (new) items.

Good on ya,

Goober Dave

RE: Revising Technical Document

Yes, Word (for the last 10 generations) has a revision tracking feature that is way more effective than any of the options mentioned above.  The real power is that you can turn the display of changes on or off.  When I get a document that is in this mode, I turn the display off and read the document as it currently exists without any of the strikethroughs or references.  Then I turn the display back on to see what the last changes changed.  This is way more powerful than it sounds (being able to read the document without any indication of what has changed gives you a feel for how good (or bad) it is now, and you can start your own revisions from that point.

David

RE: Revising Technical Document

The MS Word "tracked changes" funtion is excellent for the soft copy version.

However a vertical line and rev triangle in the margin is the best for the hard copy.

(IMHO)

RE: Revising Technical Document

What ever happened to just putting the "was" in a rev block?  It was cumbersome when you had to hand carve it on mylar or ask the central typist to copy it over to a rev block.  But now it is nothing more then "copy-paste".
Bars on the side of the margin are only good for the latest revision.

RE: Revising Technical Document

Vertical margin line is typical for statutory documents, such as codes.  I would use that as well.

RE: Revising Technical Document

I just started color coding the text revisions and adding them to an existing specification as 'commentary' instead of putting the line in the margin.  For whole new specification sections, the addition is color coded in the TOC and the section is indicated as 'Addendum 1' in the color of the addendum, but the body of the text is black for the new revision section.

This really only works if you have relatively few, simple changes, which is what the addendum process should be, but there are always exceptions.  What i can't remember is if this is possible in Word, Pages (MAC) or Acrobat because I work for a firm that uses a mixed platform and I work on both PC and MAC at my desk.

"Gorgeous hair is the best revenge."  Ivana Trump

RE: Revising Technical Document

Geeee.....  I would be required to take out a new revision with the obligatory revision blocks and send it back through the approval process.

Vertical lines sounds golden.

rmw

RE: Revising Technical Document

Color alone wouldn't be enough, I agree  There is always an addendum number or, in the case of contract negotiations, a date and initials of the reviewer.  So even if you print it out in black and white, or if you are color blind, there is a way to track the changes.

Lately I've been reviewing a lot of contracts and doing the negotiation for provisions, modifications and changes.  The date/initial/color method made it easy to spot who was requesting the change.  Each party reviewing the contract had their initials and a color that was specific to them, so you could glance through and see what that particular individual wanted without having to scrutinize each comment.  This was especially useful as the negotiations wound down to a couple of people so it was just a battle between, in my case, blue and purple.  Green, orange, red, and teal had dropped out or backed down and it was between me (purple) and the Owner's attorney's boss (dark blue).  As far as I know, none us were using black and white monitors, nor color blind.  Nothing was printed until the very end when the negotiations were at an end and the parties that were to sign the contract had their final stamp of approval.

Using the commentary method also made it easier to check an agreed-to change if someone tried to make the same change after a certain provision had been agreed to by all parties.  It stopped the "didn't we already decide on this?" stuff because the comments were right there for everyone to see.

 

"Gorgeous hair is the best revenge."  Ivana Trump

RE: Revising Technical Document

Multi color track changes in Work certainly has it's uses on a 'draft in progress' as you demonstrate Cass.

First used it on a TERD back in 99.

(Training Equipment Requirement Document)

However, I don't think it works well for the final release/revision.

Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?

RE: Revising Technical Document

That last post needs to be copied over to the Acronym thread.

rmw

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