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Subject:Cross-ref pet peeve From:Elizabeth Kane <bkane -at- ARTISOFT -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 17 Jun 1998 12:34:01 -0700
It bugs me when I'm using a book and I come upon a cross-reference
that says "see Chapter x..." Am I alone in being bugged by this?
The beginning of a chapter is usually hard to find without either
going to the TOC, or doing a lot of page-flipping and trying to read
footers. I don't want users to have to take the second step of going
to the TOC to find out the chapter's starting page number.
So in our manuals, when I make chapter cross-refs, I say "see Chapter
x, beginning on page x." Then the users can go right to it if they
want to. It may take a teeny bit longer to create the cross-ref (if
you make the chapter number a hypertext link as well as the page
number), but I'm willing to take the time to make things easier for
the users.
Beth Kane
Senior Technical Writer
bkane -at- artisoft -dot- com
