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Re: List formats

Subject: Re: List formats
From: Janice Gelb <janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 13:34:51 +1000

Beth Agnew wrote:
>
> If you have paragraph and section numbering, it meets
> that need for visible structure so they are less likely
> to kvetch about things like bullets. This close to
> deadline, you may not want to make any wholesale changes
> just now; you can table the request for a change in
> bullets for the next version of the document and
> reconsider it then.
>

We've gotten away from numbered sections except in
hardware installation manuals, technical references,
and service manuals, mainly for online presentation
reasons. In online searches, numbering of sections
pushes the distinguishing words in the title further
to the right, making life more difficult for the
reader. Also, online, numbered sections are
relatively meaningless. Finally, thanks to hypertext
getting readers to specific sections is easier so
the need for numbering is not as great.


Fred Ridder wrote:

Sorry, no, not if you're using the common definition of ordinal
(as opposed to the fairly esoteric mathematical definition of
ordinal). An ordered list in a document should use *cardinal*
numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) rather than ordinal numbers (1st,
2nd, 3rd, 4th). Besides reducing the cognitive load on readers,
cardinal numbers do not require translation or localizations
while the ordinal forms of numbers certainly do.


So much for trying to reach back to eighth grade
math class memories for fancy-shmancy adjectives!
You are, of course, correct. My mistake.

-- Janice

************************************************
Janice Gelb janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com
Just speaking for me, not Sun

Editor -- Someone who knows that "carpe diem"
does not mean "fish of the day."

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References:
Re: List formats: From: Fred Ridder

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