RE: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides

Subject: RE: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides
From: "Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>
To: Daniel Feiglin <daniel_f -at- radwin -dot- com>, "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:50:22 -0700

Daniel Feiglin wrote:

> 1. For "print style" documents such as PDF, it is certainly better to tell the
> reader to "see section 1.2.3" rather than "see Attaching Thingamabobs to
> Doohickeys" or even "see page 1-23". <snip>

I beg to differ. I have no idea where in the book section 1.2.3 may be. (Well, OK, I could guess that it might be near the front. But does section 1.2 contain 20 subsections covering 20 pages or 3 subsections covering 120 pages?)

Assuming continuous (not folio) page numbering, I can pretty accurately estimate where in a 300-page book page 123 falls.

> 2. For Web documents it goes the other way. It makes much sense to say "see
> here", where "here" is a character formatted hyperlink. <snip>

Usability professionals have been arguing against the use of "here" as hyperlink text for years. It's much better if the link text provides meaningful content, such as the destination heading title or a phrase describing the destination.

Richard

Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
------






^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
New! Doc-to-Help 2013 features the industry's first HTML5 editor for authoring.

Learn more: http://bit.ly/ZeOZeQ

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


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

Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives


References:
RE: Use if xrefs in topic based or minimalist writing: From: Porrello, Leonard
RE: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides: From: Fred Ridder
Re: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides: From: Julie Stickler
Re: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides: From: David Crosswell
RE: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides: From: Daniel Feiglin

Previous by Author: RE: Use of plug-in/unplug
Next by Author: RE: Advice on rewriting translated ops manuals
Previous by Thread: RE: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides
Next by Thread: Re: Numbered versus unnumbered heads in very technical reference guides


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads