Send Project as a Whole to be Reviewed in Contributor?
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EvoHelp182
- Jr. Propeller Head
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Tue Dec 17, 2013 8:45 am
Send Project as a Whole to be Reviewed in Contributor?
Is it possible? We are working on a whole new product based on an outline, and I would like to send the started project to the team. This way they can see the whole to add info to. Thoughts?
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Nita Beck
- Senior Propellus Maximus
- Posts: 3669
- Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:57 am
- Location: Pittsford, NY
Re: Send Project as a Whole to be Reviewed in Contributor?
If they'll be using Contributor, I think that you probably can send them all the topics. But bear in mind that not everything is going to come along for the ride in the review package. For example, snippets don't come along. The reviewers will be able to view the snippets within the context of topics, but they won't be able to edit the snippets directly. (And for this reason, I don't send out review packages.)
Sometimes, if I want to send reviewers the entire contents of a Help system, I produce a Word doc to hold the entire contents, so the reviewers can mark up the Word doc to their hearts' content. And I'll send them a working version of the Help system, too, so they can "test drive" it. Typically, though, I do not send reviewers the entire contents of a Help system, just the specific sections/topics that I'd like feedback on.
If you're not building Help but instead a print doc (e.g., PDF, Word), just send them the print doc.
Sometimes, if I want to send reviewers the entire contents of a Help system, I produce a Word doc to hold the entire contents, so the reviewers can mark up the Word doc to their hearts' content. And I'll send them a working version of the Help system, too, so they can "test drive" it. Typically, though, I do not send reviewers the entire contents of a Help system, just the specific sections/topics that I'd like feedback on.
If you're not building Help but instead a print doc (e.g., PDF, Word), just send them the print doc.
Nita
RETIRED, but still fond of all the Flare friends I've made. See you around now and then!
RETIRED, but still fond of all the Flare friends I've made. See you around now and then!
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EvoHelp182
- Jr. Propeller Head
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Tue Dec 17, 2013 8:45 am
Re: Send Project as a Whole to be Reviewed in Contributor?
Thanks! This is very helpful! At this point we are creating something new and they are more like content experts that are writing. So, since giving them a bare bones project is not going to work, I am going to give them templates to start out with. From there I am going to edit and assemble into a project. However, your info is great information going forward - we also have a lot of legacy docs that are being converted and reviewed. T
Thanks for your help!
Thanks for your help!
Re: Send Project as a Whole to be Reviewed in Contributor?
We have a contributor who is responsible for the contents of an entire user guide. He asked for a review package of the whole project and we obliged by selecting and sending him all the topics in the TOC.
It was not a happy experience.
Points to note:
1 When you import a review package back into Flare, it lists all the topics in the package and indicates those that contain changes or annotations. You can accept or reject the changes in a topic before accepting the topic back into the project.
2 A contributor can also accept or reject changes, and Flare does not report on these. So a topic listed as having zero changes may not be the same as the original, because a contributor may already have accepted changes. The only sure way to include all changes made by a contributor is to accept all outstanding changes and then accept all the topics in the review package.
3 It takes a long time to select and accept all the topics in a large review package.
Moral of the story is never to send the whole project to the contributor, break it into manageable chunks.
It was not a happy experience.
Points to note:
1 When you import a review package back into Flare, it lists all the topics in the package and indicates those that contain changes or annotations. You can accept or reject the changes in a topic before accepting the topic back into the project.
2 A contributor can also accept or reject changes, and Flare does not report on these. So a topic listed as having zero changes may not be the same as the original, because a contributor may already have accepted changes. The only sure way to include all changes made by a contributor is to accept all outstanding changes and then accept all the topics in the review package.
3 It takes a long time to select and accept all the topics in a large review package.
Moral of the story is never to send the whole project to the contributor, break it into manageable chunks.