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Of course, there are arguments in both directions for
each numbering system.
However, there are many times with highly technical
materials that people actually *make notes* that
contain references to some crucial (to them) bit of
information--perhaps a particular configuration chart
or whatever. If you insist upon whol-book renumbering,
there can be significant time lost in communicating
between indivduals in these circumstances. Imagine:
"Hey, Joe, where can I find the configuration info?"
"It's on page 168 of the User's Guide!"
"No, it isn't!
"It was there last time I looked...let's see..."
So here we have *two* people looking for something
that is a clear carry-over from a prior edition, but
the page numbers have shifted because of new content
forcing a renumbering of the pages.
On the other hand, with individual chapter numbering,
crucial information doesn't shift was much--and, with
many systems, many chapters carry over from release to
release with relatively little change.
If you have a highly complex document, numbered
headings and subheadings may appear tedious, but at
least the section numbers where information is to be
found within a chapter may give much the same benefit
of individual chapter numbering!
To me, it's simply a matter of seeing how the
customers use the documents and working with their
preferred methodology wherever possible.
In the telecom world, many products have thousands of
pages of technical documentation--and little of it can
be remembered clearly for long. Thus, people concerned
with an individual element of a document set may not
need to look at more than a chapter or two. For them,
too, individually numbered chapters may be preferable.
I hope this is food for thought!
David
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