Re: Page numbering: multiple volumes

["Arlen P. Walker" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM>]

      - A technical manual where volume I has chapters 1-7 and volume II has
      chaps 8-15 and the page number for the first usable page in vol II is
      either 8-1 or 722.  This makes using an index or TOC virtually
      impossible.
       I have a few manual sets this way and I hate them every time I use them.

As long as it's clearly shown which book has what page range, I don't find it a
problem. If the index tells you it's on page 750, and doesn't give you a clue
that page 750 is in volume 3, that's plain bad indexing, and should be fixed.

Most muli-book indexes I've run into tell me what volume it's in (the early
Inside Mac indexes from Apple used II-475 to mean page 475 in volume II). I
don't mind that, as then I can pick up the right book.

If the book pages are numbered consecutively, then I can say "This book starts
at page 400, so page 750 is about here," and begin my search. But if the index
is a mulit-volume index and doesn't tell me which book to look in, then someone
fell asleep during the production process.


Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 24

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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