Procedural tables

Subject: Procedural tables
From: geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 13:22:40 -0600

Heidi Margenau proposed a problem involving excessive
numbers of procedural tables; the alternative was burying
the details in some form of paragraph.

Two questions: First, could you provide an example? It's
easy to do procedures without resorting to either buried
paragraphs or long tables, but it helps to have something
concrete to work with. Second, are you sure the tables
really do pose a problem? If you haven't checked with your
users, don't jump to any conclusions. One of my colleagues
converted her company's manuals to use almost exclusively
procedural tables and, in addition to drastically reducing
the size of the documentation, produced something that
users were considerably happier with. (And incidentally,
she won an STC award for the result.)

--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.

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