TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
> I just returned from a fruitless visit to the Archives. I am trying to
> update a manual that contains command lines that our field engineers
> use. Apparently there has been some confusion over where to place
> spaces when they are typing in these commands. Does anyone have any
> ideas on how I can show them where the spaces (and how many) appear in
> each line? Using an underscore won't work, because that is actually
> used for directory names, etc.
This may be more trouble than it's worth... you know how some forms
(like the IRS 1040 EZ form) give you lightly shaded boxes to write
numbers in? What if you made a very light grid -- as light as you can
legibly print -- and put the characters inside that grid. The empty grid
boxes would be for spaces.
Bad ASCII art follows:
--------------------------
| | | | | | |
| R | U | N | | 1 | 3 |
| | | | | | |
--------------------------
Tracy
--
> I just returned from a fruitless visit to the Archives. I am trying to
> update a manual that contains command lines that our field engineers
> use. Apparently there has been some confusion over where to place
> spaces when they are typing in these commands. Does anyone have any
> ideas on how I can show them where the spaces (and how many) appear in
> each line? Using an underscore won't work, because that is actually
> used for directory names, etc.
This may be more trouble than it's worth... you know how some forms
(like the IRS 1040 EZ form) give you lightly shaded boxes to write
numbers in? What if you made a very light grid -- as light as you can
legibly print -- and put the characters inside that grid. The empty grid
boxes would be for spaces.
Bad ASCII art follows:
--------------------------
| | | | | | |
| R | U | N | | 1 | 3 |
| | | | | | |
--------------------------
Tracy
--
> I just returned from a fruitless visit to the Archives. I am trying to
> update a manual that contains command lines that our field engineers
> use. Apparently there has been some confusion over where to place
> spaces when they are typing in these commands. Does anyone have any
> ideas on how I can show them where the spaces (and how many) appear in
> each line? Using an underscore won't work, because that is actually
> used for directory names, etc.
This may be more trouble than it's worth... you know how some forms
(like the IRS 1040 EZ form) give you lightly shaded boxes to write
numbers in? What if you made a very light grid -- as light as you can
legibly print -- and put the characters inside that grid. The empty grid
boxes would be for spaces.
Bad ASCII art follows:
--------------------------
| | | | | | |
| R | U | N | | 1 | 3 |
| | | | | | |
--------------------------
