Jean Hollis Weber wrote:
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
The beauty to using styles is they can be easily tweaked in just a
minute or so. Changing fonts or colors from one to another, including
simple black, is a no-brainer. But, using a different style
subconsciously informs the reader that a stepped procedure or what-not
is coming, etc. In addition, having a different style for print versus a
monitor (using color for the latter) better utilizes the use of color.
B/W for print; color otherwise.
The first thing that Apple incorporated with their Macs was their
insistence that color enter the Twentieth Century. It's now the 21st
Century. I doubt that the printed versions of anything today would be
chosen over other media. The percentage of the population who purchase
books is quite low, but that low percentage sure buy a lot of books
among them.
I'm not sure about how Garamond is treated on computers today versus 15
years ago. The Macs used them then, but I'm not sure about Garamond's
lack of availability today. It's one of the nicer fonts, even when bolded.
In any event, I'm into an experimental mood.
Gary
