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On Wed 3/22/00 10:22 AM I submitted the following to TECHWR-L:
"I have searched TECHWR-L's archive prior to posting this rather general
series of questions. I appreciate any insight you can provide.
What standards are you using for Notes, Cautions, and Warnings and their
graphical symbols? What are some of the resources for the symbols'
standards? What are you using as a guideline to correctly align Notes,
Cautions, and Warnings in relation to the text?"
Thank you very much for your responses, which are summarized below.
Bold and italicize all the text.
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The graphic symbols used depend on the particular industry; each industry
has its own standards for the graphics for warnings, notes, and cautions.
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Because each industry's graphic symbols may have specific legal
implications, ask the legal department at your company.
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You can use a library of pre-designed items, with each class of graphic in
the left margin; there may be clipart available for the graphics; search
industrial sourcebooks.
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Each class of notice gets formatted/styled differently [all were indented,
offset, different font].
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Sources used: ISO, ANSI, and CE standards
Note: Tip to help with use. We used an image of a little piece of paper with
a push pin.
Warning 1: Yellow symbol, denotes potential for equipment damage.
Warning 2: Yellow symbol, denotes potential for minor personal injury.
Caution: Orange symbol, denotes potential for serious personal injury.
Danger: Red symbol, denotes certain serious injury or death.
For the symbols, we stuck with an exclamation mark in a triangle.
Typically, the text Warning, Danger, or Caution should be sans serif, and at
least two points larger than the warning message. The warning message should
be a serifed font, and should clearly indicate the dangerous action, and the
expected outcome. Never go smaller than 10 points Times Roman.
You can buy these images, premade, tested, and true.
In the standards the message must always come before the procedure;
sometimes the warnings appear a little out of context.
You can place warning messages on lines by themselves, and they really jump
off the page.
