Yes, Janet you have it. However, I see Jean's point in that it need not be first. It just needs to be there somewhere and possible cross referenced. At first I did not really understand that it was Kerning.Jean Hollis Weber wrote:
I propose the following changes to the Writer Guide outline, affecting the "Working with Writer" and "Working with Sections" chapters. (Changes to other chapters may come later.) Note: Neither the wording of the headings nor the order of topics within each chapter are my final choices; I'm just looking at topics right now.
1) Rename "Working with Writer" to "Working with Text". 2) Rename "Working with Sections" to "Formatting Pages". 3) Contents of these two chapters to be as follows.
** Working with Text Selecting text Cutting, copying and pasting text Moving paragraphs quickly Pasting unformatted text Finding and replacing text Formatting paragraphs Formatting character size, color and style Autoformatting Removing manual formatting Inserting special characters Creating numbered or bulleted lists Checking spelling Using the thesaurus AutoCorrect Word completion AutoText Line numbering Word count Change tracking
** Formatting Pages
Introduction: many ways to format pages
Using page and paragraph styles (summary and reference to Styles chapters)
Changing margins using page rulers
Creating columns
Using frames for page layout
Using frames for page layout
Using tables for page layout
Using sections for page layout
Creating headers and footers
Numbering pages
In addition, two items currently in the "Working with Text" chapter should be moved to "Introducing Writer":
Undo and restore
Navigator (combine with what is already in the "Introducing Writer" chapter.
This all sounds good to me.
I suggest have some guidance in the "Formatting Pages" chapter on *when* to use what type of formatting. My work tends to be mostly manuals and standard reports, so I almost never use frames or tables for layout. Those tools are more appropriate for flyers, newsletters, web pages, and the like. A novice user might be bewildered by the wide range of options available. (You may have been planning to do this, but I thought I'd mention it.)
My interpretation of Chris's point is that he looks at character formatting and spacing first, then paragraph formatting, and finally page formatting. So perhaps he meant that character formatting should precede paragraph formatting, and should include character spacing. Changing the order is fine with me. However, I think for most users, who are typing text rather than scanning it in like Chris, character spacing is not a primary concern. So I wouldn't want to spend a lot of space on it in a basic chapter. On the other hand, character spacing is a concern for those who want to fine-tune their typography. That step is usually done after the basic layout is complete; so a cross-reference to the character spacing section might be appropriate in the layout chapter. I don't think this is a big deal --- I wouldn't have thought about it if Chris hadn't brought it up.
The "Numbering pages" topic should address FAQs like "How do I suppress numbering on the first page?" and "How do I change the numbering style and sequence for front matter?"
I notice you have "Using frames for page layout" listed twice. Is one of them supposed to be something else?
Chris
