RE: Table that spreads over multiple pages

["Jones, Donna" <DJones -at- zebra -dot- com>]

-----Kimberly Thornton wrote:-----
 
I have inherited a military technical manual to update. I've come across a
troubleshooting table that spreads across 33 pages!!!!! Just one table! Its
a three-column table that lists the Symptom, Probable Cause, and Corrective
Action. 
<snip>
Has anyone else dealt with this type of issue? How did you handle it? 
------------------


There was a similar situation with some of the troubleshooting tables in the
user guides I took over. Some of the older guides threw all of the
troubleshooting issues together, making it necessary for the users to muddle
through pages and pages of issues to try to find one that might apply to
them.

What worked for our user guides was to group the different symptoms
logically and split the table apart based on those groupings. I inserted
level 1 headings between the tables to break things up and show clearly
where the tables started and stopped. The table caption was the same as the
text of the heading, and if a table split across pages, the table caption
included the word Continued.

For example, because we work with printers, we were able to break down the
one table into the following logical groupings:
- LED Error Messages
- Print Quality Problems
- Calibration Problems
- Communication Problems

I would suggest reading through the issues listed in your huge table to see
if there are ways that you can group some of them so they can be split off.
Any that remain that don't fit in a category could always be left together
in one table with the heading "Miscellaneous Issues."

Hope that helps!
Donna

Donna L. Jones
--------------------------------------
Technical Writer II
Zebra Technologies Corp.
Vernon Hills, IL
djones -at- zebra -dot- com


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