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Frank Taylor reports: <<In User's/Installation Guides etc., I do not indent
the Headers. I do indent the text (regular text as well as procedures etc.),
usually to 3cm. When inserting screen captures, diagrams and photographs, I
1) indent them to 3cm, to be in line with the text. Similarly, I
left-justify their respective captions (indent to 3cm). So we then have
everything in a nice straight line and the reader's eye does not have to do
too much traveling.>>
Sounds reasonable thus far.
<<Or 2), I center-justify them with the 3cm indent and do the same with
their captions. Not so neat, but acceptable. As the insert is centered, so
is the caption, so the reader is not too bothered.>>
That's inconsistent with your former approach, but from the reader's
standpoint, it seems to be one of those consistencies that only we editors
would notice. The only change I'd propose is to align the caption to the
left edge of the graphic; just as in your first approach, the graphic and
caption begin at the same level of indentation, which both minimizes eye
travel and maximizes the tendency to treat caption and graphic as a single
unit.
<<However, when I have large diagrams or photos, or even screen captures
that won't fit to this scheme, I am forced to use another format. Usually
this is center justified with no indent. What do I then do with their
respective captions?>>
Follow the approach you've described thus far: minimize eye travel. That
suggests aligning the caption with the left edge of the image, so the reader
encounters it at the same level as they encounter the image it describes.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
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