diff --git a/docs/manual/BUILD b/docs/manual/BUILD
index bc12aefdd1..64d6b1fd1e 100644
--- a/docs/manual/BUILD
+++ b/docs/manual/BUILD
@@ -1,3 +1,16 @@
+Thomas's new comments on the doc building :
+-------------------------------------------
+* originally the manual was written with DocBook 3.0 in mind, which 
+  supported the graphic tag.  That is now deprecated, so I changed it to 
+  the new mediaobject tag set.
+
+* eps files in images/ should be generated from the makefile.  You need to 
+  have fig2dev installed for that.
+
+
+Wtay's original comments :
+--------------------------
+
 For now use:
 
   db2html gstreamer-manual 
diff --git a/docs/manual/README b/docs/manual/README
index bc12aefdd1..64d6b1fd1e 100644
--- a/docs/manual/README
+++ b/docs/manual/README
@@ -1,3 +1,16 @@
+Thomas's new comments on the doc building :
+-------------------------------------------
+* originally the manual was written with DocBook 3.0 in mind, which 
+  supported the graphic tag.  That is now deprecated, so I changed it to 
+  the new mediaobject tag set.
+
+* eps files in images/ should be generated from the makefile.  You need to 
+  have fig2dev installed for that.
+
+
+Wtay's original comments :
+--------------------------
+
 For now use:
 
   db2html gstreamer-manual