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.
> >Many people who have considered the way we render words into
> type have suggested that less is more. Mark Baker (whatever
> happened to Mark Baker?), a long-time techwr-l contributor,
> talked about avoiding "double marking" of text. If you indent
> a paragraph, you don't need to put extra space before it,
.
> too, for example. Edward Tufte, in discussing graphic display
> of information, says, "Relevant to nearly every display of
> data, the smallest effective difference is the Occam's razor
> ('what can be done with fewer is done in vain with more') of
> information design. And often the happy consequence of an
> economy of means is a gradeful richness of information, for
> _small_ differences allow _more_ differences." (Visual
> Explanations, p. 73)
.
> My only misgiving about this approach is that it assumes an alert,
> observant readership. Considering how little most people know or
> appreciate typography, this assumption seems questionable to
> me. True,
> the approach makes sense with large differences, such as
> indentation and
> line spacing, which are hard for even the unobservant to
> miss. However,
> in other cases, I prefer to assume a less careful audience.
.
> For example,
> with headings, several markers seem needed; if you differentiate a
> heading only by the font, size, or spacing, then many readers
> will not
> notice at a glance what they are looking at.
Also, what happens when -- as I indicated in my other recent
post about code samples -- the layout of big inserted chunks
of text *requires* you to break your nice, subtle layout
and your unobtrusive reading/navigation cues?
What if my layout gives me room for 8 average words per line,
and then I need to insert a couple of lines of sample code
or text-screen dialog, each of which is about 17 words?
And then a little later in that chapter, I have a paragraph
of introductory text, followed by 14 pages of monospaced
sample code, followed by a three-line paragraph of ordinary
text, followed by another ten pages of sample code.
What would be the subtle-yet-effective approach, there?
/kevin
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Help Authoring Seminar 2003, coming soon to a city near you! Attend this
educational and affordable one-day seminar covering existing and emerging
trends in Help authoring technology. See http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l2.
A new book on Single Sourcing has been released by William Andrew
Publishing: _Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation_
is now available at: http://www.williamandrew.com/titles/1491.html.
---
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.
