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RE: re How many levels of indents and heads are reasonable?
Subject:RE: re How many levels of indents and heads are reasonable? From:"Tariel, Lauren R" <lt34 -at- saclink -dot- csus -dot- edu> To:<nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 11 Oct 2007 08:46:16 -0700
I agree with Mark's suggestion. For me, it is hard to keep track of my place in the document when there are more than 5 levels, but some docs that follow (or try to follow) IEEE standards can get very nested. User documentation should not make demands on users to keep track of that many levels.
I just took a quick look at the IBM library to see what they do because they have a lot of documentation and they have documentation for large systems. Most of the books they have are no more than 3 levels deep, but some older books are 4 four levels and the older books occasionally contain section names in the heading numbering. By comparison between old and new, I think the cleaner, new format of 3 levels without section names is much easier to follow.
From: techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com on behalf of nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il
Sent: Thu 10/11/2007 8:22 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: re How many levels of indents and heads are reasonable?
At more than three or four levels, sometimes
it makes sense to start thinking about further
division not at the bottom level but at
the top level-- making two chapters out of
one, or introducing a new top level such as
the volume or book or tractate. A new top
level can sometimes give you leeway to promote
existing headings upward by one level, which
may improve reader-friendliness.
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Mark L. Levinson - nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il
------------------------------------------------
Mark discourses to fellow Israeli techwriters in
The Why of Style, at http://www.elephant.org.il/
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