diff --git a/Doc/Makefile b/Doc/Makefile
index 6ac0b0705b0..b9566eb2bb6 100644
--- a/Doc/Makefile
+++ b/Doc/Makefile
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ TOOLSDIR=	tools
 
 # This is the *documentation* release, and is used to construct the file
 # names of the downloadable tarballs.
-RELEASE=2.3a2
+RELEASE=2.3b1
 
 PYTHON=	   python
 DVIPS=	   dvips -N0 -t $(PAPER)
diff --git a/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex b/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex
index d406c0d6238..1da0c68d6cd 100644
--- a/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex
+++ b/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 	Email: \email{python-docs@python.org}
 }
 
-\date{\today}			% XXX update before release!
+\date{\today}			% XXX update before final release!
 \release{2.3}			% software release, not documentation
-\setreleaseinfo{a2}		% empty for final release
+\setreleaseinfo{b1}		% empty for final release
 \setshortversion{2.3}		% major.minor only for software