Build a changelog from email updates

To build a changelog from email updates, follow these steps to convert the content of your email updates into a clean, structured, and useful changelog. Here’s a streamlined process:

Step-by-Step Guide to Build a Changelog from Email Updates

1. Collect Relevant Emails

• Filter your inbox using keywords like update, release, feature, bug fix, changelog, patch, etc.

• Focus on emails from product teams, developers, QA, or marketing with product update content.

• Consolidate all relevant emails into a single document or spreadsheet.

2. Extract Key Information

From each email, extract:

• Date of update

• Version number (if available)

• Title or summary of change

• Details of new features, improvements, or bug fixes

• Category tags (e.g., Feature, Improvement, Bug Fix, Deprecation, etc.)

Example structure:

markdown
CopyEdit
## [1.4.0] - 2025-05-15
### Added
- New login interface with 2FA support.
- Integration with third-party CRM tools.

### Fixed
- Resolved issue with session timeout during checkout.
- Fixed bug causing data sync errors in dashboard reports.

### Improved
- Performance enhancements to the analytics module.
- Refined UI responsiveness for mobile users.

3. Normalize Language and Format

• Convert bullet points and raw descriptions into consistent, concise wording.

• Use action verbs and avoid vague language. For example, replace “bug fixed” with “Fixed bug causing…”

• Group changes by categories: Added, Changed, Fixed, Removed.

4. Organize Chronologically

• Sort the changelog entries by version and/or date.

• The newest updates should appear at the top.

5. Optional: Use Markdown Format

If you’re publishing the changelog on a website, GitHub, or an internal portal, Markdown is a clean and readable format.

6. Create a Running Changelog File

Start a master file like CHANGELOG.md, and continually append new updates as they are extracted from future emails.

Sample Changelog Based on Email Update

Assume the following email summary:

Subject: Product Update – May 2025
We’ve rolled out updates to enhance dashboard performance, introduced real-time notifications, and squashed several bugs reported by users.

markdown
CopyEdit
## [2.5.0] - 2025-05-10

### Added
- Real-time push notifications for project milestones.
- New option to export reports in Excel format.

### Improved
- Enhanced dashboard performance with asynchronous data loading.
- Reduced page load time by optimizing image assets.

### Fixed
- Corrected issue where date filters reset after page reload.
- Fixed email notification bug that sent duplicate alerts.

Automation Tip (Optional)

If you’re handling frequent updates:

• Use tools like Zapier, Make (Integromat), or Google Apps Script to automatically extract relevant text from emails and append it to a changelog file or Google Sheet.

• Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools can help classify changes into categories automatically.

Let me know if you want a script or tool recommendation to automate the extraction process.