preface questions

["Brierley, Sean" <Brierley -at- Quodata -dot- Com>]

Hallo:

I put the preface before the TOC, in my books. The main reason I do this is
because that's the way it was done before I got here. I am considering
changing this, to put the preface after the TOC, but will be consistent with
all of the books in the software suite for this release and, if I make the
change, will make the change for the next iteration of the software in the
suite. Such a change will be global and will affect all the books for each
software product.

My preface contains information about using the book, document conventions,
such as what italics indicate, etc., company contact information. I think of
the preface as an appendix up-front because the information in it is used
rarely, by few, and the information does  not pertain to the main subject of
the book: using the software.

Question 1: Am I right to include such information in the preface?
Question 2: Is my perception of the information correct? Does this
information really belong in a regular chapter or is it okay, as is.
Question 3: I have balked at making the preface chapter 1, after the TOC,
for one of the books in the software suite for the reason that I want the
books to be consistent across the product line. Can anyone suggest a
compelling reason to change one book, at this point?
Question 4: Is there any real issue with putting such a preface before the
TOC? The preface is numbered using Romans, and everything is in the index
plus the few headings used in the preface do appear in the TOC.

Thoughts on 1-4. Yes, I am on a new project <vbg>.

Sean
sean -at- quodata -dot- com