RE: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides

Subject: RE: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides
From: Daniel Feiglin <daniel_f -at- radwin -dot- com>
To: "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:46:27 +0000

One issue that has not been addressed in this thread, is that of cross references.
1. For "print style" documents such as PDF, it is certainly better to tell the reader to "see section 1.2.3" rather than "see Attaching Thingamabobs to Doohickeys" or even "see page 1-23". You can do hyperlinks in PDF and the like, but they are useless when printed.
- "Yeah, but who prints?"
I know that my UMs get to all sorts of odd-ball places where relevant sections are printed.
2. For Web documents it goes the other way. It makes much sense to say "see here", where "here" is a character formatted hyperlink. I find numbered headings in Web documents to be an annoyance.
3. In practice, you can single-source with output-medium dependent headings and cross reference formats.

Daniel Feiglin| Technical Writer| RADWIN | t. +972 (3) 769 2827 | f. +972 (3) 769 2875 | m. +972 (52) 3869986 | Skype baba_danny | www.radwin.com

follow us on:  Twitter . LinkedIn . Facebook


-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+daniel_f=radwin -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+daniel_f=radwin -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of David Crosswell
Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2013 00:55
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides

On Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:49:44 AM Julie Stickler wrote:
> By all that is holy, if you're going to number headings (and I can
> appreciate Fred's argument for numbers), limit the number of levels
> that you have! At my last job we had numbered headings that went six,
> seven, eight levels deep. I think I might have found one section that went to nine
> levels. And it was not pretty.

Ludicrous!

If you are going in anywhere near that deeply, your document obviously needs to be restructured.
Cheers!

David.

<Massive snip>
--
"Res publica non dominetur."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
New! Doc-to-Help 2013 features the industry's first HTML5 editor for authoring.

Learn more: http://bit.ly/ZeOZeQ

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as daniel_f -at- radwin -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
New! Doc-to-Help 2013 features the industry's first HTML5 editor for authoring.

Learn more: http://bit.ly/ZeOZeQ

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives


Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: Use if xrefs in topic based or minimalist writing: From: Porrello, Leonard
RE: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides: From: Fred Ridder
Re: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides: From: Julie Stickler
Re: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides: From: David Crosswell

Previous by Author: RE: Online documentation - call it WebHelp, or?
Next by Author: Re: The ethics of tech writing; was, RE: Contract rates
Previous by Thread: Re: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides
Next by Thread: RE: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads