Re: Where/how did you learn how to lay out and format tables?

[John Garison <john -at- garisons -dot- com>]

There's a significant difference between designing (laying out) a table 
and formatting it. It's similar to the difference between designing a 
document and choosing it's margins and fonts.

When I taught technical writing, I had an example that was best solved 
by designing a table that required the information that the audience 
knew or had at hand on the outside, and the information that they needed 
to discover on the inside. While it's fairly obvious if it's something 
like a train schedule, it's not always so obvious if it's about 
determining what solution to use under varying constraints.

Here's the example. I didn't create it, and I don't know who did, but 
I've been using it for over 25 years:

Design an easy and quick reference for the following data:


Cosmocars are great for short trips.  If time is limited, take a 
Satellite or an Astrobus.  Shuttles are recommended for journeys shorter 
than 10 parsecs if you're not limited by cost and time.  Take a Cosmocar 
if cost is an important factor, or you could use a Zephyr.  If your 
journey is over 10 parsecs, then you might want to consider using an 
Astrobus.  Capsules are the best way to travel for more than 10 parsecs 
if time and money are available.  The farthest you can go on a Satellite 
is 10 parsecs, but Zephyrs can only travel farther.


The "best" solution is a table where the X and Y axes are identified as 
Distance and Limits (Time, Cost, and None).

IMHO, table design is much more important than formatting. Not to 
diminish formatting, but it's akin to font fondling as opposed to 
information design. And a well laid out table will be much easier to format.

My 2¢,


John Garison








Paul Sholar said the following on 4/17/2009 4:47 PM:
> I'm looking for authoritative sources that present the principles of
> laying out tables and formatting cell contents. 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing 
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor,  Microsoft Word or 
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat