Stephen Buck wrote:
What is the general rule of thumb here at OOoA when creating a list (either
in bullets or in a sentence), arrange it in alphabetical order or by
grouping similar task items together?
For example, in my first review I read this passage:
"This chapter covers methods for editing shared documents: sharing documents
(collaboration), recording changes, adding comments and notes, reviewing
changes, merging and comparing documents, and saving and using document
versions."
and suggested the list be re-arranged in alphabetical order:
"This chapter covers methods for editing shared documents: adding comments
and notes, merging and comparing documents, recording changes, reviewing
changes, saving and using document versions, and sharing documents
(collaboration)."
The original is fine, but my editing hat was on. Last year during my
copyediting class, we were required to arrange items in a list into
alphabetical order, but were also advised that rule was only relevant to the
class. We were told that authors may want their list items in the order they
listed them, and companies may have their own unique preferences (that
vary).
How is it done here?
Thanks
Stephen Buck
San Francisco, CA
Hi, Stephen,
My 2ยข:
Alphabetic order is fine for /inconsequential/ lists, in which the
individual items will not be further discussed. Items for further
discussion should be arranged in some good, logical order, and the rest
of the document should be arranged correspondingly.
Maybe I've been doing too much editing on the wiki, but I would expect
to see the above list formatted as both bulleted and linked, /i.e./, as
a miniature TOC.
--
/tj/
