What is the Advanced Concepts Guide (ACG)? This is a document created by Citrix development/test teams that contains advanced technical information as well as last minute information found during the product closedown. In the past, this document was delivered a few months past the product release date in the form of a pdf and posted on the Citrix Knowledge Center on Citrix.com. Then, a few months after the document was completed a comprehensive book would be published by McGraw-Hill and made available for purchase at any major retail store.
With the Presentation Server 4.5 release, we have changed the delivery method for this information. Instead of creating a large pdf and posting it to the Knowledge Center, we have created a landing page that serves as a table of contents with links to all of the articles with new information. These articles are intended to be used in addition to any previously posted ACGs. (Remember to reference other separate product ACGs that are now Platinum features.) Why did we make this change?
- The Knowledge Center did not support "search" functionality within a pdf document. Therefore, it was difficult to search for a specific topic.
- This new way will reduce the "time to market". (Although, this time we didn't see this benefit as we were enhancing our processes.) Previously, the entire document had to be completed before any information was posted.
- Now we can constantly add information instead of waiting until the next rev of the document.
- You can set a "watch" in the Knowledge Center to receive alerts when there are modifications or new entries added.
A couple of things to note: With the next product release we will carry forward previously published information so that everything will be found in one place. Also, the book will still be published. The 4.5 Platinum version is expected in Q2.
Let us know what you think of this new delivery method?
Posted by 
I understand the rationale behind the new way, but I really miss just being able to download the ACG and keep a copy with me locally. It may seem petty, but sometimes it's sort of a pain to have to navigate out to the web to go get what I'm looking for. Also, I use Adobe at work, so it's really cool if I have a PDF to be able to add my own bookmarks, make notations, etc., all without having to kill any trees. I will probably end up going through all the links that are applicable to my environment, and printing to pdf anything that's not already in pdf format.