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.
Subject:Re: Numbered Headings From:"Mark L. Levinson" <nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 06 Nov 2002 13:51:39 +0200
Habiba writes:
> The Pubs group uses numbered headings in the User Manual
> and they are all for it. But the boss has asked us to
> avoid using numbered headings.
A couple of advantages of numbered headings are that (a) they
can persist from edition to edition while page numbers change,
and (b) they can give you easy reference to a section that is
smaller than a page.
Suppose for example that a user phones and says "Hey, how
do I open a file?" It's nice to be able to reply "Read
Section 1.1, numbskull" without worrying about which edition
of the manual the user has.
When there may be legally significant dialogue with clients
about how the product works, it's nice to have the fine
granularity that section numbers can give you. The client,
treating the manual as kind of a spec, can say "We acknowledge
that the product works as specified except with regard to
section 5.0.2.3," and that's easier than saying "except
with regard to the part about filenames longer than 256
characters in the part about backups in the part about
client site management."
A third advantage is that the section number can be retained
in an online version of the document, thus allowing paper
users and online users to speak comprehensibly to one
another about the document even though the online version
isn't artificially divided into book-sized pages.
FWIW, personally I don't use numbered headings unless
asked. I think they're intimidating.
Mark L. Levinson
Herzlia, Israel
nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Check out SnagIt - The Screen Capture Standard!
Download a free 30-day trial from http://www.techsmith.com/rdr/txt/twr
Find out what all the other tech writers, including Dan, already know!
All-new RoboHelp X3 is now shipping! Get single sourcing, print-quality
documentation, conditional text and much more, in the most monumental
release ever. Save $100! Order online at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
---
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.
