Re: New Chapter On Right/Leave Left Page Blank -Reply

[Scott McClare <smcclare -at- DY4 -dot- COM>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chuck Martin [SMTP:cwmartin -at- US -dot- ORACLE -dot- COM]
> Sent: Thursday, May 27, 1999 2:32 PM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      Re: New Chapter On Right/Leave Left Page Blank -Reply
>
> Just as in interface design, it's not a matter of aesthetics. It's a
> matter, of convention, expectation, and what works. While I'm not going
> to spend time researching the issue, I can't recall any book I've seen,
> from technical manual to computer book to science hardcover to trade
> paperback to mass-market paperback that didn't start chapters on the
> right-hand page.
>
Look a little more closely; you might be surprised.  A  clear majority of
the books on my work bookshelf - comprising dictionaries, style guides,
grammars, computer books, novels, and a Bible - don't prefer one page over
the other for new chapters.  Two out of ten do, and one of those has been
designed so that there's an epigram on the page facing the first page of
each chapter.

It ain't "standard," and it ain't difficult to find the start of new
chapters by looking on the left *and* the right.

The manuals I write, OTOH, do start with the new-chapter-on-right
convention, because each chapter is individually numbered.  Generally
(though not here) this is to allow changed pages to be swapped out, and it
would be difficult for the end user to have to make the changes with a razor
blade and a tube of glue.  (And what would you number the first page - 2 or
0?)

Take care,

Scott

--
Scott McClare - Technical Writer
DY 4 Systems Inc., Kanata, Ontario, Canada
(613) 599-9199 x502 smcclare -at- dy4 -dot- com
Opinions are my own


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=