TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Eric Dunn <eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com> wrote:
> Good suggestion Richard, but the four paragraph styles are not necessary.
Well,
> they are necessary if the second list may start on it's own but otherwise
only
> three of the four are required.
>
> List1 N:<n=1>.< =0>\t
> List1_cont N:<n+>.< =0>\t
>
> List2 N:< ><a+>.\t
You're right, Eric, you don't need separate pgf tags to restart numbering.
But you might want separate tags for the first item in a list for other
reasons, such as different space above. I didn't go into that because I
figured that my response was complicated enough (compared to "use a
different series") already. :-)
In my templates, for instance, I have FigCapFirst/FigCap and
TableCapFirst/TableCap for figure and table captions. The *First tags are
defined exactly the same as their siblings. But in the generated lists, the
corresponding *LOF and *LOT tags are different, putting extra space above
the first figure/table entry in each chapter. I think this "blocking" of
entries by chapter makes the LOF/LOT much more readable.
> An even better approach IMO is to have all paragraphs be part of the same
> numbering series. Have each paragraph include the following numbering:
>
> Para N:< =0>< =0>
> List1 N:<n+>.< =0>\t
> List2 N:< ><a+>.\t
Yes, I've seen a single numbering series used for everything -- chapter
numbers, headings, lists, steps, figures, tables -- with perhaps six or
eight counters defined. It works perfectly if set up properly (which is a
bear; not recommended for dyslexics).
I prefer to use different series for different types of content because (a)
it's easier to set up and maintain, and (b) I like to think it provides
additional "metadata." So I have one series for chapter-based numbering
(<$chapnum> included), which is used for chapter titles, figure captions,
and table captions; another series for ordered lists; and a third series for
procedure steps.
Works for me; YMMV. ;-)
Richard
------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Voyant Technologies, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT voyanttechDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT freeDASHmarketDOTnet
303-777-0436
------
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Buy RoboHelp Deluxe starting at only $798: you'll get RoboDemo, the hot new
software demonstration tool that's taking the Help authoring world by storm,
together with RoboHelp Office. Learn more at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
Your monthly sponsorship message here reaches more than
5000 technical writers, providing 2,500,000+ monthly impressions.
Contact Eric (ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com) for details and availability.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
