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Subject:Re: Paragraph spacing in Word From:Keith Cronin <kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 11 Jan 2002 11:47:48 -0500
If you're designing documents for "universal" use by users whose skills with
Word are probably not uniform, you're right - it needs to be as idiot-proof
as possible.
The first step towards such IPU (idiot-proof universality) is COMPROMISE.
You are going to care far more about this stuff than anybody else, so take a
step back, and look for simple solutions.
In this case, I suggest you find ONE set of paragraph spacing parameters
that offends you the least. You probably won't love it, but that's not the
issue, IMO. Find a spacing where both your traditional text flow (Head 1 ,
Body text, Head 2, Body text) and stacked headings (Head 1, Head 2, Body
text) look acceptable to you. Not great, but not horrible. Acceptable. It
can be done, if you lower the bar a little on your design sensibilities. And
nobody will notice. Honest.
Regarding stacked headings, I too was taught that this was a no-no. But
nobody ever told me WHY. I've been forced to write snippets of filler text
to separate headings, and I've found the end result more offensive and
paper-wasteful than the appearance of stacked headings. Sounds like you're
of similar mindset if you use them. To me that's an area where many people
are a bit too pedantic for my tastes. Do what works, not what some tradition
forces you to do.
If life deals you lemons, make lemonade; if it deals you tomatoes, make
Bloody Mary's.
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