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Subject:Re: Content vs. design: orphans From:Samuel Choy <schoy -at- us -dot- ibm -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 2 Oct 2003 11:46:40 -0500
Dianna:
We have five software manuals (100-300 pages
each) that are supposed to go to press today, but of course everyone
wanted a lot of last-minute changes.
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It seems to me that if your books are going to press ***today*** last
minute changes that are not required to fix critical errors should be out
of the question. I think that it is just too easy, in the rush to fix one
problem, to could cause another.
For example, if in attempting to remove orphans you change the pagination
of the book, will you have to regenerate the table of contents, list of
tables, list of graphics, index, and any other cross links in the book?
Depending on what tools you are using, that could be no problem, or that
could be a major hassle.
Here are some questions to ask yourself in making your decision:
1. Are the changes critical? IMHO orphans are usually not.
2. What will the consequences be from making the changes? For example, will
the changes affect any other aspect of the book (eg. pagination)? Will you
miss your deadline? What will happen if you miss your deadline - does it
matter?
3. What will the consequences be from not making the changes? Will someone
be injured or killed? Will it damage equipment or data? Or will only .05%
of your audience notice?
And when this is all over, go to the techwr-l site and search the archives
on the phrase "the last minute crunch." That is a thread in which I
received some excellent advice from some very wise techwhirlers on
handling/preventing last minute changes to the doc.
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