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Thanks to everyone who responded. In fact, I got so many responses that I
couldn't possibly reply to them all. Anyhow, it seems that this is a dilemma
faced by many of you. To summarize, there are many ways to deal with
documenting optional components of a system in one manual:
- italicize optional features
- put an icon in the heading or text to indicate them
- tell the user in the body of the text that the following material is for
an optional module
- just describe the optional components at the front of the manual in an
introductory section and let the reader find what they need (the theory is
if they don't have the option they won't go looking for that info--who reads
a manual from front to back anyway?)
- use a flowchart to describe procedures that contain optional steps
- grouping the optional components into a single chapter that is called
exactly that
- add this to the heading: (Optional)
- put a sidebar in the margin of the text with a note describing that the
feature is optional and include contact info in case the reader wants to
purchase the module
- examine the manual that came with your car. Chances are that it contains
sections describing optional equipment.
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