Jean Weber wrote:
Finally catching up on this topic...
On 6/28/07, Gary Schnabl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
... we should go into some detail about how, where, when, and why some of
the various styles are used so that less editing need be performed when
standardizing various formats among chapters.
What was clearly absent from earlier versions was a set of detailed
instructions about bulleted and numbered lists. This formatting should be
made clearer.
Suggested changes to chapter template and instructions: 1) Make it a real
(.ott) template and use it properly. 2) Ensure no x-refs to the field info
held in Doc Properties, because this info is lost when docs become part of a
master doc. Should we remove this info, eg on User-defined tab, to minimize
confusion? 3) Update copyright info for CC license, but retain the full link
text for the two licenses so it is visible when printed. 4) Remove line for
maintainer's name or make it optional. The original intention was to give
credit to the person doing the work, but many chapters no longer have an
ongoing maintainer. IMO best to just leave the line to direct comments to the
list. 5) Remove "New in 2.0" graphic and the note-like table used for it. No
longer needed. 6) Ensure no use of Times or Courier: these cause problems
for me when creating the printed books from Lulu. For example, the copyright
symbol in the current "template" is in Times; needs to be Times New Roman.
Text created by the drawing tools defaults to Times (at least on my system);
this needs to be changed to Arial or Times New Roman. We shouldn't be using
the drawing tools anyway (because of other problems), but if we do -- we
need to agree on what font to use for the text. 7) Ensure no hyphen after
chapter title on title page, even when a subtitle in included. The chapter
title goes into the page footer, but the subtitle doesn't, so the occasional
hyphen there looks silly as makes the footers inconsistent. 8) Make the Frame
frame style identical to the one we have defined for OOoFrame, or delete
OOoFrame; main requirement: remove the 0.20 cm spacing on left, right, top,
bottom for Frame. Also, make the Graphics frame style the same as
OOoGraphics. When new graphics are added, their style defaults to Graphics
and no one changes the style to OOoGraphics. When a caption is added to a
graphic, both are contained in a frame of style Frame; again, no one changes
this to OOoFrame. We might as well simplify things by eliminating the custom
styles; but if not, make the defaults identical. 9) Similarly, make the
Figure paragraph style identical to OOoFigureCaption. The default style for a
caption added to a graphic is Figure; people are better at changing these to
OOoFigureCaption, but many forget. Change the spacing below paragraph for
both these styles to 0.1cm.
Don't forget English speaking people. (0.04")
10) Include instructions on how to create and insert graphics, including (a)
don't use drawing tools to annotate screenshots or create diagrams,
Seconded! Figures/illustrations should be complete in themselves.
and (b) what font to use for text in graphics.
It should be a sans serif typeface and Arial is already defined above, so it
seems appropriate here? I'm using 9pt Bold and it still reads fairly well at 60%
reduction in size (Lulu books).
11) Should we simplify the table design? I think it looks good, but applying
the changes to alternate rows between a white background and a 10% grey
background are a nuisance. Are they worth the trouble? I can't decide.
It's visually attractive and aids the reader, so I think it should stay.
Inserting a blank table into the template would make it readily available for
replication, if required, and easily deletable if not.
[cut]
Peter HB
