Hi Gary,
I have finally found time to look at some of your proposed style
changes for the Writer Guide, and have some comments. Summary: I
am opposed to most of your changes.
1) General comment: Having more styles simply increases the
probability that writers won't use them correctly, so we should
add styles only when they serve a good purpose. I'll accept the
OOoKeyboardInput character style for that reason: it does serve a
good purpose. I do not like the font color change, but I am not
opposed to it.
2) I am completely opposed to changing the base font for the
OOoAboveList paragraph style from Times New Roman to Garamond.
Proliferating fonts is not a good thing unless it serves a good
purpose, and I can see no purpose in this whatsoever. It could
also cause problems for anyone who does not have Garamond on
their machine. Please reverse this decision.
3) I do not like the use of bold for the OOoAboveList style,
although I am not as opposed to it as I am to the font change.
I think it serves no purpose whatsoever and is just noise.
Please reverse this decision.
4) I am opposed to the new OOoAboveListColored paragraph style.
I think making a distinction between the lead-in line to a bullet
list and the lead-in to a numbered list serves no purpose
whatsoever, and the color is just noise. Clearly you think a
color change before a procedure is a good one, but I don't. Color
changes are IMO noise, as well as wasting expensive toner or ink
when one prints the file instead of reading it onscreen. (And if
one prints in b&w, then the colour change is wasted anyway.)
You might be able to persuade me to accept using bold before a
numbered list (with no color change) and not-bold before a bullet
list, even though that means adding a new style to the list.
However, I repeat that I don't think it is necessary and am
opposed to it in principle.
Regards, Jean
