Recent User Assistance Studies on Printed Books?

[Lorraine Kiewiet <lkiewiet -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

Hi Wr-lers.  To make a long story short.

Background: I recently joined a company with little experience in creating user documentation. They are a rapidly growing software firm. There are two tech writers and a manager, and there has been a lot of turnover. Before the three people who are here today arrived, the technical managers made the switch from a 7.5 x 9 inch printed book with consecutive page numbering in favor of an 8.5 x 11 printed manual with the 'chapter-level' page numbering. Also, paragraph leading and font choices make the long, gray blocks of text difficult to read.

Today's question: Given that they think this looks good, are there any studies out there to support the more standard practices that we three on the doc team want to move to? Examples: for internationalization, we believe that the book should be 7.5 x 9. For readability, the body font should be serif, and more than 3 points of line leading are needed between paragraphs. 

Thanks for any pointers to studies, journal articles, wiki's. 
--Lorraine



Lorraine Kiewiet\r\nTechnical Writing & Consulting\r\nOnline & Print Documentation
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007 
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.