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yes, you may be right in saying that tables separate the information better for the reader, I don't know. You could do a test and present some unbiased readers with the same procedure presented in a numbered list and in a table and ask their opinion.
Of course, being a writer, I'm biased and, at least in my experience, a numbered list works better because it's easier to write and publish, especially when decisions need to be made in a procedure. Instead of using complex embedded If/Then tables, you could just as well use a "do one of the following" construction. Example:
1. Do this.
2. Do that.
3. Do one of the following:
* If you see condition A, do A+
* If you see condition B, do B+
4. Do this again.
This is a lot easier to write and publish than an If/Then table, especially if you use graphics in your procedure as well.
Also, tables in general are more difficult to "repurpose". Just try to change a single-column layout to a multiple-column layout of your document and see how the tables behave. Or, change your page size from A4 to, say, 170 x 220 mm. And, as we all want to do single-sourcing, convert your document to PDF and some HTML-based online help format. See how the tables behave in both media.
This makes sense, but why not use a numbered procedural table without a
header, rather than a numbered procedural list? Don't you agree that
that procedural layout separates the information better for the reader
than a numbered procedural list?
Best regards,
Mats Broberg
Technical Documentation Manager
From: Yves Barbion [mailto:YBarbion -at- uni-learning -dot- com]
Sent: den 2 september 2005 11:04
To: Broberg, Mats; TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Procedural layots
Hello Mats,
this is a nice coincidence, I had a chat with a colleague about
this this morning.
I'm in favour of simple numbered lists (1, 2, 3, ...).
Various reasons:
- We, the tech writers, indeed have to make a distinction
between procedures and processes as infotypes (and change our style of
writing accordingly). We cannot expect from the reader that he/she
should make the same distinction. To him/her, it's just a sequence.
- The only visual difference between a step/action table and a
stage/description table as defined by Information Mapping (IMAP) is the
text in the cell heading (apart from the style of writing). Again, the
reader just sees a sequence of events, he/she doesn't care whether they
are steps (in a procedure) or stages (in a process).
- Localization: the terms "step", "action", "stage",
"description" have to be translated as well and inconsistencies may
appear (in spite of translation memory systems).
- Tables are helpful to present very structured information, but
sometimes, they can be very complex to present something very simple
(like a procedure). For example, If/Then tables embedded in Step/Action
tables. And this complexity can present problems when doing the layout
or when publishing your documentation to various media (HTML, XML,
online help, ...). If you're developing templates or designing an
information model for a DTD or Schema, you'll have a lot more work for
the different types of tables. If you don't use step/action or
stage/description tables, you could simply do with <list> and
<listitem>.
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