Re: Rules or white space for separating rows and columns?

[Tim Mantyla <TimMantyla -at- nustep -dot- com>]

The perfect topic to trap a suggestion for this list that's been wafting 
like a dandelion seed in my mind:

A visual examples page--a big, white space--on TECHWR-L set up for posts 
like those below for screen captures, graphs, charts and other images. 
1280 x 1024 pixels = 1000s of  words.

Eric, is this doable?

Tim Mantyla
Communications Representative
NuStep, Inc.  -  www.nustep.com
"Transforming Lives"

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail


Patricia Egan wrote:

> This discussion came up at work not long ago. The graphics team deleted
> vertical rules from the table template and the SMEs hollered. I did some
> research. ...When I presented my findings
> in a slide presentation, I used the same table, once with the vertical 
rules
> showing and then with the vertical rules hidden. Using a large screen, I
> flipped back and forth between the two versions. The spacing was exactly 
the
> same in both; only the vertical rules were different--shown or hidden. 
The
> experience resembled sitting with the eye doctor and being asked which 
is
> better, A or B. You might like to try it yourself.
> 
> Pat
> 
> 
> On 6/17/08, Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca> wrote:
> >
> > Milan Davidovic reported the following advice: <<From Carolyn Rude,
> > "Technical Editing" 2nd ed., p. 167: "Vertical and horizontal lines
> > (rules) separating rows and columns are discouraged except for highly
> > complex tables because the lines clutter the table with visual noise.
> > White space is the preferred method for separating rows and columns.
> > Too much space between columns, however, may result in inaccurate
> > reading because the eye may skip to a lower or higher row.">>
> >
> > Good basic advice, but not to be taken as a rule <ahem> of nature.

...

> > For cell data that align neatly (e.g., all left justified or decimal
> > aligned), you don't usually need vertical lines, because it's easy to
> > scan vertically downwards without skipping to another column.
> > Horizontal lines are more necessary, particularly in wide tables,
> > because it's more easy to skip lines. So you'll often find it
> > necessary to insert horizontal lines or white space, but not vertical
> > lines.
> >
> > <<Right now, I'm building a template in the shadow of legacy
> > documentation that is chock full of tables, almost all of which make
> > full use of rules to separate rows and columns; relatively few of
> > these tables are "complex". If I follow Rude's advice, I'm pretty
> > sure I'll experience some opposition.>>
...
> > If you're old enough to remember the paper used for line
> > printers (and some smaller dot matrix printers), you'll be familiar
> > with another alternative that often works even better than white
> > space and lines: use light color shading to group rows of data. For
> > example, a 10% or 20% grey can be used to group one set of adjacent
> > rows...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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