When writing articles on Computers, Computer Software, Internet and Information technology, please consider the following:
Service Pack
Service pack or service release refers to a piece of software that modifies another computer program to fix its bugs or improve it. When referring to service packs please make sure you make proper distinction between the version of software product which is serviced via a service pack and the service pack software itself.
To refer to a service pack, write down the full name of service pack. For example:
- Windows XP Service Pack 2
- WinZip 9 Service Release 1
To refer to a software product updated with a service pack, write: [Product name] with [Service pack name]. Alternatively, you can specify the version identifier of the software product for conciseness. For example:
- Windows XP with Service Pack 2
- Windows XP SP2
- WinZip 9 with Service Release 1
- WinZip 9 SR-1
Version vs. product name
Software vendors often use two common approach for refer to specific versions of their products:
- They include the version number in their reference, e.g. WinRAR 4, WinRAR version 3 and WinRAR v2.
- They change the product name with each release, e.g. Microsoft Office 2007 (version 12) vs. Microsoft Office 2010 (version 14).
Video game vendors also make sequel and prequel video games for their most notable products. In such cases, they may affix numbers to the names of these video games which is different from version number. For instance Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 are distinct software products.
Each piece of software product must be referred to with the most common name. In addition, it is imperative to make sure these methods of references are not confused and combined. The following are examples of referring to Microsoft Office 2007:
- Correct: ... Microsoft Office 2007 is released to manufacturing on ...
- Correct but not recommended: ... but later updated Microsoft Office version 12 to ...
- Correct but not recommended: ... but later updated Microsoft Office v12 to ...
- Incorrect: ... requires users to install Microsoft Office version 2007 ...
- Incorrect: ... in Microsoft Office 12, but did not ...