T. J. Frazier wrote:
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?

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 said exactly what I would have said. The order of the list in the intro to the chapter should be the same as the order the topics are discussed in the chapter, which should be whatever order is logical for the subjects covered.

Also as TJ said, I often use x-refs in the chapter intro lists so the items link to the corresponding sections in the chapter.

A side-effect of this list organization is that if/when the chapter is restructured, the list needs to be reorganized too.

Finally, as Gary said, what good would alphabetical order be when being translated afterwards?

--Jean

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