RE: General formatting question for a TOC

["Karen L. Zorn" <k -dot- zorn -at- zorntech -dot- com>]

Tammy Van Boening wrote:
However, an edit that I received recently indicated that the editor's
(i.e., developer's) preference was to put in only Heading 1 levels - it
looked different/funky to him to have more than one level in the TOC. 
****

A 3-level TOC presents an outline of the document helping the reader find
what they want, especially if the document is not indexed. When only one
level is presented, the reader may not see a related sub-topic, therefore
"the document is worthless." 

YMMV

Karen L. Zorn
Zorn Technologies, Inc.
Mesa, AZ

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+k -dot- zorn=zorntech -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+k -dot- zorn=zorntech -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of Tammy Van Boening
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 2:41 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: General formatting question for a TOC

_____________________________________________
From: Tammy Van Boening 
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 2:40 PM
To: TechComm Discuss (techcomm-discuss -at- stcrmc -dot- org)
Subject: General formatting question for a TOC

All,

Have a general formatting question - it's definitely a matter of
personal preference versus any hard and fast rule I would think, but
then again. . . .when I create any TOC (Word or Framemaker), I have
always been rigorously edited to include at least the first two heading
levels of your heading styles, and sometimes the first three. I have
HeadingLevel1/Heading 1 aligned to the left and subsequent heading
levels indented accordingly - Heading2 Levels slightly indented beneath
Heading1 Levels, and Heading3 Levels slightly indented beneath Heading 2
levels. I don't go for a bunch of different fonts, bolding, etc. The
fonts are all the same for the TOC entries, just different in
indentation and font size. 


I truly don't have heartburn about this either way - there's much bigger
fish to fry, but I just wanted some feedback from the writing community
to get a general feel about what's the "norm" and what's not - so I can
support the decision either way (because another developer wants all of
the heading levels in - of course~)

Thanks,

TVB

Tammy Van Boening
Senior Technical Writer 
Health Language, Inc. 
Office: +1 (303) 307-4400 x254 
www.healthlanguage.com 



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