RE: Chapter-page numbering, reasons for

["Al Geist" <al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com>]

Robert Lauriston wrote about Chapter-page numbering:

"I think it is either-or. Either number everything down to the
paragraph level (as in regulations), or nothing. Anything in between
is a lot of effort for negligible payoff. It's a holdover from the
print era."

Hi Robert,

I'd like to add to what Leonard and others have said, which is essentially
"you do what the customer wants." There is no need to number things down to
the paragraph level. Printed books are read linearly and should have a TOC.
Chapter number-Page Numbers assist the user in locating the subject matter
they discovered in the TOC. Adding paragraph level number may be required in
legal (as in law) documents, but not in tech manuals (unless the customer
wants it). Software Help does not work well with my customers because of the
nature of the product, and I believe there are other similar situations
encountered by other writers. Each situation is unique and it requires an
open mind to produce the documentation necessary to support those
situations. The print era may be over for some people, but I'm making a
rather decent living developing print documents for one customer and
context-sensitive help for another. The latter, even if they desire a
printout of the "manual" does not use chapter or paragraph numbers. They
wouldn't make any sense in a Help where navigation is anything but linear.

Regards,

Al Geist
Technical Communicator, Help, Web Design, Video, Photography
Office/Msg: 802-872-9190
Cell: 802-578-3964
E-mail: al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com
Website: www.geistassociates.com
See Also:
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