News
Additions, changes, and other items of interest
Last modified: 7/6/99
This section shows a log of additions and changes to the Good Documents site as well as items of interest to our readers. To be notified of changes, sign up for the mailing list.
Pages People Read Most
A list of the pages that visitors to this web site spent the most time reading, according to the server logs.
Log of changes, etc.
Tuesday, July 6, 1999
After a long hiatus, minor changes to this site.
Changed Rob Critchfield to Ron Critchfield on the Related Sites page. (Sorry, Ron!) Also added www.webphotojournals.com and www.webword.com to that page.
www.webphotojournals.com is a new site that Dan Bricklin and Trellix Corporation, creators of this web site, are producing. While the new web site is targeted at individuals writing for their friends and relatives, almost all of the material is relevant to creating trip reports on Intranets. After all, writing for a small, known group is very similar to an Intranet. Part of the reason Good Documents has not been updated in a long time is that Dan has been spending a lot of time learning about personal web sites as Trellix Corporation branches out with Trellix Web -- a version of Trellix specifically for authoring web sites. (He also had to help design that product.) Only some of the sites are for public viewing, such as his personal web site, www.bricklin.com. Web Photo Journals is one way he is sharing some of that learning.
Added an "Interesting Books" page to the "Related" section.
The redirect page that goes from www.gooddocuments.com to www.gooddocuments.com/homepage/homepage.htm was changed to be more user friendly: it now uses JavaScript in your browser (if available, a link if not) and you can back up through it much easier. Thanks for the complaints about the old way and I'm sorry this took so long to fix.
Wednesday, October 7, 1998
The look of this web site was completely redesigned in response to comments and testing. For more information, see "The new web site design". The look of almost all pages have been changed.
There are two new samples in the Samples section: A Product Specification and a more readable version of the Independent Counsel's Report.
The method for signing up for our mailing list has changed to be the more common automatic listserver method.
New mail has been posted and minor edits were done to other pages as discussed there. However, there is also now a newsgroup for more interactive discussions among readers. See "Good Documents Newsgroup".
Friday, July 24, 1998
New mail. Additional Related Sites.
Thursday, June 18, 1998
New mail, minor link fixups in the "status report with presentation" sample and "about this site" page (no content changes).
Added "Pages People Read Most" section to this News page.
Tuesday, June 9, 1998
Added a mailing list for notification of major changes to this site.
Friday, June 5, 1998
A new technique, "When (and how) to use frames" was added. It is more extensive than many of the other techniques, and has several samples and related links.
Monday, June 1, 1998
The Good Documents web site was unavailable for several hours on Friday, May 29, 1998. A wide-spread power failure in the area around our ISP knocked out their Telephone company leased lines. (Sometimes even your own backup power won't help you!) We're sorry for any inconvenience!
Added more mail, and updated the related sites list with sites that have addded links to this site recently.
A new writeup on when to use frames is in the works. It should be available later this week.
Thursday, May 14, 1998
Added a new technique, "Test new designs", that discusses usability testing.
Added a report on a usability test of this web site to the "Tips and Techniques" sample, complete with transcripts of several sessions. Also added a description of how this web site was created to the sample description. Heeding the report, the subtitle on the home page was changed from "How to write for the Intranet" to "How to write for the INTRAnet".
A lot of mail that has been waiting for a while has been added to the Mail section. If we miss yours, let us know. (If you don't want your mail listed, tell us, too.)
Updated the Related Sites section with more sites about usability testing and some other sites.
Other sites: Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for May 3, 1998: Cost of Testing a Website -- data on how inexpensively you can usability test a website. Note: You can also usability test business documents as you try different techniques. If you have a heavily used document, like an HR manual or 401K description, a little testing can save a lot of valuable time for your employees. (See our usability test report for information on the inexpensive test we conducted.)
Tuesday, April 28, 1998
Added a new sample, the "Status report with presentation" to the Samples section.
A few changes, as suggested by comments in mail, including ALT tags on some of the images. (More will come in over time.)
Tuesday, April 21, 1998
Several minor changes to the site, as suggested by comments in mail.
Enhanced the first page of the "This web site" sample, renamed as "This web site: A Tips and Techniques knowledge-base".
Monday, April 20, 1998
Responding to comments in mail, made "Good Documents" logo a link on many pages.
Responding to usability testing in our lab, changed last "next tour stop" link in "this site" sample tour to link to overview page.
Wednesday, April 16, 1998
Added demonstration of a 2-D "You are here" style map to the "Use maps" technique. Try it!
Tuesday, April 14, 1998
Extended the Related Sites list with more entries.
Monday, April 13, 1998
Variety of edits suggested by others, fixing typos and making things a bit clearer.
Friday, April 10, 1998
Site first posted to www.gooddocuments.com.
Tuesday, April 7, 1998
Domain "gooddocuments.com" registered.