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>From experience, departing from the template, in certain situations, can be a mess. For example, I've had to clean up RoboHelp projects where the creator had simply used the Normal style throughout the document, changing paragraph and font settings as needed. (I still don't understand why they did that. If I think too hard about it, my head implodes.) That's an extreme example, but I've also had to clean up minor things that were kind of hard to track down, like variances in paragraph spacing that made the document look wrong but we couldn't quite put our finger on what it was.
IMHO, templates and structure shouldn't be messed with unless there is a really good reason to do it (we have to occasionally depart from our help format to accomodate unforfeen issues.) It just goes for consistency, which users come to rely on. However, I think writers should be allowed some creativity with the content as long as it meets standards of quality.
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Sean Hower
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