We're working on a software manual with several chapters and topics and, so far, these are mostly self-contained. This means we have a dedicated chapter for "connectivity" and do not mention connectivity elsewhere, a dedicated chapter for "software upgrades" and do not mention upgrades elsewhere, etc. You get the idea.
But we have now a new software functionality that affects different topics in the manual (say, topics A, C, and G). Each one of these topics is self-contained and isolated from the others but affected in a different way by this new functionality.
The question is, what would be the best approach to read about this new functionality?:
- Create a new topic H and discuss in detail how this new feature affects A, C, and G. Add references in A, C, and G to the new H topic (central approach)
- Add information about the new feature to the to the existing topics A, C, and G, without the need of a new H topic. (disperse approach)
We see advantages and disadvantages in both. In (1) we have everything in one place, which makes things easier in the long term, but H would be a topic of disparate things. In (2) we provide the information in the topic itself, where is most needed, but this is difficult to maintain the in the long term.
Thanks, Jorge