RE: Cross-reference style question

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

Nancy Allison wrote: 
 
> I'm working in a long document that has internal TOCs at the beginning
of
> each chapter.
> 
> They are presented in a simple list format, using the same x-ref
formatting
> that is used in sentences. It's quick and easy but possibly not really
> stylistically acceptable. By that I mean, not stylistically acceptable
TO
> ME. I'm wondering if my ideas of acceptability are stuck in, say, the
80s.
> It looks like this:
> 
> This chapter contains the following sections:
> 
>    -- "Opening Your Toaster Box" on page 37
>    -- "Plugging in Your Toaster" on page 42
>    -- "Burning Your Toast" on page 67
> 
> 
> Each bulleted item is a hyperlink and is formatted in blue ink, so
that
> when people read the PDF online, they know they can click to go
directly to
> that section. When the document is printed on a color printer, the
text is
> blue, which may seem slightly odd, but the page number is provided so
the
> reader can find the section.
> 
> Although it looks a bit kludgy to me, it is much easier to maintain
than
> having two lists marked with conditional text:
> 
> --One has the blue hyperlink, no quotation marks, and no page numbers
> --One has the quotation marks and page numbers, but no hyperlink
> 
> The two-formats-marked-with-conditional-text is what I have done in
other
> documents, but I'm wondering if I am making work for myself and anyone
else
> who has to maintain the docs.

I think your current setup is _superior_ to omitting the page numbers in
the online PDF. After all, people _print_ PDFs that they access online.
And then the blue link with no page numbers is pretty much useless to
them. 

Save the page-numberless hyperlinks for the online help. 

IIRC, you're working in FrameMaker. You can save yourself a lot of time
creating and maintaining chapter TOCs by getting Rick Qatro's ChapterTOC
script ($40; requires FrameScript;
http://www.frameexpert.com/scripts/chaptertoc.htm) 

Check out Sharon Burton's testimonial in the FrameUsers list archives: 
http://lists.frameusers.com/pipermail/framers/2008-July/013030.html 

I haven't used ChapterTOC myself, so I can't say from personal
experience. But Sharon's contention that you'd save the cost of the
script plus FrameScript on the first manual sounds reasonable to me. 


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






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