Re: Bulleted text (long, but worth it)

["D. Margulis" <ampersandvirgule -at- WORLDNET -dot- ATT -dot- NET>]

James Childs wrote:
>
> Does anybody have any thoughts on whether bulleted text should be "embedded"
> into a paragraph (indented by .25 or something) or aligned with the
> paragraph in which it is contained?And please refrain from citing
> Microsoft's Manual of Style. I want your OWN opinions on this, as technical
> writers.


James,

Would you settle for my opinion as a typographer with nearly forty
years' experience?

This is a design decision that is affected by several variables. Let me
begin by saying something about how a book designer works. A designer
who is confronted with the need to develop a specification for a series
(rather than for a single book) needs to know what sorts of
constructions will be permitted. [This is the situation of the tech
writer developing a style for a series of manuals, for example.]

The designer usually has a manuscript to look at, but that single
manuscript may or may not contain expressions of all of the different
constructions, so consultation with the series editor is usually a good
idea.

The designer then does some measuring, counting the number of words in
different kinds of constructions, in order to be able later to estimate
page counts based on type specs. Again, the series editor should be able
to indicate whether the sample manuscript is typical in this respect.

Only then can the designer begin to think about page size, margins, type
size, and fonts.

Well, the process goes on from there, but let me bring this back toward
the question you asked and show how this method applies.

The basic style in a manual, as in most other books, is the body
paragraph. Body paragraphs may be justified or flush left. They may have
zero space above and below, with a first-line indent; or they may have,
say, 6 points above and below but no first-line indent. My taste usually
runs toward the former, more traditional style; but this isn't about my
taste.

Now the question is, once we know what the body paragraph looks like,
what should the lede paragraph look like? (A lede paragraph--spelled
that way to avoid confusion with the first syllable in leading, which
rhymes with led--does not have a first-line indent, even if the body
paragraph does. A lede paragraph is used after every heading and as the
first paragraph after a bulleted or numbered list. Most DTP folks are
unaware of this convention and don't use it; but look at trade books and
mass-circulation magazines and you'll see it used consistently.)

Say, for example, that our body paragraph is justified, has no space
above or below, and has a one em indent (that would be an indent of
10/72 inch if we are using 10 pt. type). This is a common specification.
Our lede paragraph should be justified, no space below, and six points
above, with no indent. The space above allows us to have a small break
after lists, and it merely adds a bit to the space designed into the
bottoms of headings.

Okay. Now we're ready to talk about lists--but not about bulleted lists
yet. Does the series include, in addition to bulleted lists, numbered
lists? If it's a manual, my guess is that it does, so that you can
number the steps in a procedure.

Will there ever be, in any manual in this design series, a list with
more than nine entries? Will there ever be one with more than 99
entries? Don't jump to a conclusion; not all lists are procedures. But
you may be able to state with certainty that if a list exceeds 99
entries it will be changed into a table. You may also be able to say
that about lists with more than nine entries.

So determine, now and forever, whether the maximum number of digits in
the list token for a numbered list will be one, two, or three. This
decision sets the minimum hanging indent for all lists--both numbered
and bulleted.

Suppose you decide to allow for two digits followed by a period, with an
em space to the beginning of the text entry. Okay, that makes the hang
approximately two and one-quarter or two and one-half ems (depending on
the publishing software and the font.

Next question. Do bulleted lists and numbered lists stand a chance of
appearing in close proximity to each other--perhaps with a short
paragraph between them on the same page--or are they forever banished to
separate chapters? In the latter case, using a consistent hang is less
important than in the former case. But supposing the former case, we
want the hanging indent to be the same for both kinds of list.

But if we have a bullet flush left on the body measure and indent two
and one-half ems to the text, the space between the bullet and the text
is enormous. On the other hand, if we replace the bullets with a wider
dingbat (like a fist), this may not be a problem. So we'll probably want
to move the bullet itself to the right by an em, thus roughly centering
it in the indent, not flush left on the column. Remember, we came to
this conclusion because of the two-digit list tokens with a period. If
we limit the author to one-digit list tokens with no period, the hanging
indent is less and we can move the bullet flush left again.

We're not done.

How do you introduce lists? Do you have an ironclad rule that every list
follows a heading? Or a one-line lede paragraph? Great. But if you might
possibly have a one-line _body_ paragraph leading to a list, watch what
happens. The body paragraph is indented. The line immediately following
the indented line is the first list element. If the bullet or number is
flush to the paragraph margin, it sticks out to the left of the lead-in
paragraph. Yuck! So, if your style permits the short lead-in, and if you
cannot force that to be a lede paragraph by placing a heading or a break
of some sort above it, then the starting point for your lists of all
kinds is the one-em paragraph indent. And if your body paragraph has a
two em or three em indent, you need to adjust accordingly.

And then you have to answer the following question: Will you ever permit
an instance of a second-level list (either numbered--maybe lettered--or
bulleted)? Certainly the hanging indent for the sublist should be the
same width as the hanging indent for the top-level list.

At this point, if you started out with a nice, readable, 27 pica line,
you're beginning to run out of real estate. So it may be time to go back
and rethink that three em paragraph indent and the one-line lead-in
paragraph ;-)

The point of all this is that there is not one right answer to your
question, but there is a logical way of approaching it to solve the
design problem in front of you.

HTH,

Dick