Re: Too short for a TOC

["Ridder, Fred" <F -dot- Ridder -at- DIALOGIC -dot- COM>]

Hmmm...
I think I may actually hold the exact opposite view from Laura.  It
seems
to me that if a document is long enough to have structured headings
(chapters/sections/sub-sections, numbered or not), it's long enough to
have a TOC.  Even in case of a short document, the TOC provides a
useful overview of what information is contained in the guide.

Fred Ridder  (f -dot- ridder -at- dialogic -dot- com)
Senior Technical Writer
Dialogic Coproration, Parsippany, NJ

And to keep our marketing people happy:
Get the Dialogic Edge at:  http://www.dialogic.com


>-----Original Message-----
>From:  Laura Bean Warner [SMTP:laura -dot- bean -at- DELTEC -dot- COM]
>Sent:  Monday, June 09, 1997 3:17 PM
>Subject:       Re: Too short for a TOC
>
>I think it depends on the nature of the information and how often the
>user will be referencing it.  If the information is somehow sequential
>or otherwise logically ordered, then the TOC may not be necessary.  (Of
>course that means it is logical to someone who is less familiar with the
>information than you :-)  But, if the information more of a general
>collection of stuff one might need to know, I would probably use a TOC.
>I, personally, prefer opening up a manual to the correct page rather
>than having to page through to find the information I want, especially
>if I reference the manual frequently.
>
>Laura
>
>>----------
>>From:  Matthew J Long
>>Sent:  Monday, June 9, 1997 2:05 PM
>>To:    TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>>Subject:       Too short for a TOC
>>
>>
>>snip
>><How short is too short for a table of contents? I am producing 10-20 page
>>technical manuals (that are actually more like overviews of database
>>systems) that are easily navigable by thumbing through.>
>
>>        Matthew J. Long
>>        mjl100z -at- mail -dot- odu -dot- edu
>>        matt -dot- long -at- justice -dot- usdoj -dot- gov
>>
>

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