Re: How many levels of indents and heads are reasonable?

["Raj Machhan" <raj -dot- machhan -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Agreed. The technical document has to be correct in all aspects. But isn't
it understood? Can this ever be a debatable point? Wasn't this the first
thing that is told to each and every writer.If one needs to talk about being
correct in a forum like ours, I guess we are undermining the intellectual
ability of the members.
On the other hand, it is very much debatable when it comes to drawing a line
between what is complex and what is simple. People have different views
based on their experience, and often what appears simple to one person may
come across as complex to another writer. So the idea is to try and lay down
at least some universal standards for simplicity. I guess sticking to four
levels of headings is one such.

Raj


On 10/14/07, Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com> wrote:
>
> Raj Machhan wrote:
> > I guess the primary objective of any technical document is to present
> > information in a manner that is simple and easy to understand.
>
> I think I disagree.  The primary objective of a technical document is to
> be right and not wrong. Simple and easy to understand are things that
> make documents more likely to be read, but rightness is what gives a
> nominal technical document its value.
>
> > Any document,
> > regardless of the complexity of its subject, having more than four
> levels
> > has a problem with its structure.
>
> I don't think that all audiences have extreme prejudice against more
> than a few heading levels in the text of a technical document. Do you
> feel that there's something intrinsically ambiguous or disorienting
> about additional heading levels beyond four?
>
> I find that people who deal with structured information in thinking,
> programming, writing, etc, are usually comfortable at depths below three
> or four numbered heading levels.
>
> On the other hand, the effort required to design more than a few
> visually distinctive heading levels might stop most of us from trying to
> represent more than a few. I do recall one intrepid tech writer who was
> happy to style heading 4 as bold italic, heading 5 as bold italic
> underscore, and so on.  I call it the Abyssal Stylesheet.
>
> > It may require a lot of thought and
> > ingenuity, but I guess a technical writer should have the ability to put
> > across information within the four levels. One way of dealing with
> complex
> > topics, which seemingly require more levels, is by making use of styles,
> > boxes, notes, tables, fonts, colors, and other such features.
>
> This probably works.  I guess the theory is that we must reassure the
> audience with soothingly organized information presentations to level 4,
> and beyond that we can do what we want except to portray it as
> increasingly deep structure.
>
> TGIM!
>
> Ned Bedinger
> doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com
>
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