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Subject:Re: Omitting Table and Figure Numbers? (2) From:eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com To:Jan Henning <henning -at- r-l -dot- de>, TECHWR-L -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Wed, 10 Sep 2003 13:00:03 -0400
Jan Henning <henning -at- r-l -dot- de> wrote on 09/10/2003 12:40:28 PM:
> So, IMHO:
> - Table and figures numbers are not generally helpful to the reader.
Sorry, but that's an opinion not a studied/provable/documented fact.
Indeed several on-list have said that numbers ARE helpful. Count me
amongst that number. If I'm trying to look something up quickly, looking
for table 5 on page 35 is the simplest. If there is more than one table on
page 35 then even more so. If there are similarly named tables on other
pages, more so again.
> - If you want to shorten your references, it's much better
> to omit the numbers than the titles.
I don't see what shortening the sentences has to do with it. How is the
elimination of two characters going to have any great impact on sentence
length? If you're concerned about sentence length it's the title that's to
go.
Seeing as the inclusion of numbering is trivial, it is a help to some
readers, and it adds little to the length of the cross-references, seems
to me that they should be left in.
