Re: Too short for a TOC

Subject: Re: Too short for a TOC
From: Kris Olberg <kjolberg -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM>
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 1997 18:28:02 -0500

At first glance, creating a TOC for something so small seems silly. But
readers use TOCs for reasons other than associating page numbers with
topics. They also use them as summaries, allowing them to determine, at a
glance, whether the document contains the answers they need.

A document's "retrievability" should be a primary concern for any author.
Regardless of the size of the document (except for very small docs of one
or two pages), the document should have appropriate retrievability aids.

The audience is not necessarily the reader. Meeting your audience's needs
is your highest priority; however, meeting your readers' needs is also a
priority, even if you do nothing more than help them quickly determine that
the document does not contain what they need.

Regards...Kris
-------------------------
kolberg -at- actamed -dot- com
kris -at- olberg -dot- com

----------
> From: Matthew J Long <mjl100z -at- MAIL -dot- ODU -dot- EDU>
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: Too short for a TOC
> Date: Monday, June 09, 1997 2:05 PM
>
> All,
>
> How short is too short for a table of contents? I am prducing 10-20 page
> technical manuals (that are actually more like overviews of database
> systems) that are easily navigable by thumbing through. I don't want to
> include a TOC because it seems like overkill and frankly silly. Do you
> agree that a TOC should be reserved for longer manuals or do you think
> that I am just being lazy? Please qualifiy your opinion!! Thanks.
>
> ////////////////////////////*****************************
>
> Matthew J. Long
> mjl100z -at- mail -dot- odu -dot- edu
> matt -dot- long -at- justice -dot- usdoj -dot- gov
>
> *************************************************////////////
>
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