Re: Cease Fire with the Bullets Already!!

[Rob Hoffman <rob -at- DDI -dot- COM>]

Oh just one more bullet please James.

Some of us using Adobe FrameMaker look to Adobe's manuals
for examples, expecting that their writers do research,
conduct usability tests, etc.

For FrameMaker 5.5, Adobe revised and reformatted the manual
using a two-column layout. The list styles they've chosen
take *not* indenting to the extreme, probably because they
needed all the space they could get with two narrow columns.

Here between the lines is a quote from page 139, with line
ends, spaces, and indents exactly as done there. The first
line is a heading; it and the numerals use a bold sans-serif
font, the rest is serif:

------------------------------------------------------------
To add or remove a page break in a table:

1 Click in the row you want to change and choose
Table > Row Format.

2 Do one of the following:

* To force the row to the top of the next column,
choose Top of Column or one of the Top of Page
options from the Start Row pop-up menu.

* To remove a page break, choose Anywhere from
the Start Row pop-up menu.

3 Click Set.
------------------------------------------------------------

The manual also includes lists where the bullets (*) are at
the first level.

No first line indents, no hanging indents, nada!

So for the reader, few clues to organization from the layout.
But the two-narrow column format is easier to read than the
former wider one column format, and it certainly looks clean.

We've decided to try two similar columns in our manuals (user
manuals for programmers), but for lists, we would format the
example above as follows:


------------------------------------------------------------
To add or remove a page break in a table:

1 Click in the row you want to change and choose
  Table > Row Format.

2 Do one of the following:

  * To force the row to the top of the next column,
    choose Top of Column or one of the Top of Page
    options from the Start Row pop-up menu.

  * To remove a page break, choose Anywhere from
    the Start Row pop-up menu.

3 Click Set.
------------------------------------------------------------

That is, no indent for the first level, successive indents
for each subsequent level, and hanging indents for multi-line
paragraphs.

And where we currently have a list with more than two levels,
we will likely re-write to reduce to two levels at most,
perhaps using subheads as others in this thread have suggested.

Rob Hoffman


At 04:24 PM 6/22/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Want to thank everybody who addressed my question concerning bulleted text.
>I found out once and for all that it truly is a preferencial thing. There
>are solid arguments for both alternatives. However, we need to move on to
>another topic!! Please, no more bullet threads. We've beat this one to
>death!
>
>Sincerely,
>
>James Childs
>   Asker of the bulleted list preference
>       Fellow pro-indentenite of the Bulleted List Club
>           Seeker of cutting-edge technical writing
>

=====================================================
Rob Hoffman
Diab Data, Inc.              email: rob -at- ddi -dot- com
323 Vintage Park Drive, C    phone: 650-571-1700 x205
Foster City, CA 94404        fax  : 650-571-9068
=====================================================