RE: Value of giving up numbering in Word?

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Wow. Numbering in Word is so difficult some people want to abandon
numbering altogether? Funny, I don't remember it being all that
terrifying back when I did lots of Word templates and manuals using ...
umm ... I think it was Word 97 (was it really that long ago?). A bit
annoying at times, but I managed to cope. 

You guys really don't see any loss of utility when you discard numbering
of ordered lists, procedures, and chapters? You're going to replace "If
x, skip to step 8" or "Repeat steps 4-7 for each..." with what? You're
going to replace references to "Chapter 7" with the title (which
provides no indication of its location in the doc)?

Well, if you can't learn how to number in Word, you can't (maybe you
should give FrameMaker a shot <g>). 

But it seems to me that Word became the bloated monster it is today by
catering to people who complained, "Reading stuff and thinking hard and
learning things is too difficult. Can't you just give me a button to
click?" The chickens have come home to roost.

IMHO, of course. ;-)

Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------




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