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Subject:Re: need tips to format a manual From:Sandy Harris <sharris -at- DKL -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 26 Aug 1999 10:24:53 -0400
"Bangeman, Brant" wrote:
>
> I feel humbled by all you writers out there who can format a manual
without
> any trouble. Could you give us newbies some pointers?
>
> What font or font groups should I use?
> What about font size?
Main thing to watch is do as much formatting as possible at a global
document level, re-defining template tags that affect whole doc, rather
than diddling with format section by section. Among other effects, this
lets you try a few versions & see what looks best printed.
I'd advise simplicity. Font sizes can change for headers, perhaps for
things like labels on illustrations. Same for fonts: one for text,
one for headers & captions & ..., perhaps one for quoted code. Same
for tags.
> Should I justify both the left and right margins?
Research indicates ragged right & no hyphenation is more easily read.
