Re: Heading levels in a UG
Personally I think that 6 levels is too deep for a user, but that is just a personal preference that I cannot back up with evidence. I agree. I've read more than once that one should try to stay within three levels of headings (not counting book or chapter titles). In the Chicago Manual of Style, all I could find is section1.72: Levels of subheads Only the most complicated works need more than three levels. Six levels would drive me nuts, especially if they have that annoying 1.1.1.1.1.1. style of numbering. Sheesh! Mike Wickham ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Heading levels in a UG
I use a maximum of 4 ... anything more, and the heading numbering scheme gets quite clumsy and distracts from the content. Z -Original Message- From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Evanth, Henrik Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 12:25 AM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: OT: Heading levels in a UG Hi All I have an off-topic question that may or may not interest you. We are having a discussion at the office regarding the maximum levels of heading that a User guide/User manual can/should contain. Do you know of any best practice rules that define how deep a publication should/could be. Personally I think that 6 levels is too deep for a user, but that is just a personal preference that I cannot back up with evidence. Heading 1 Heading 2 Heading 3 Heading 4 Heading 5 Heading 6 Insights, comments or instructions are highly appreciated. Best Regards /Henrik ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Heading levels in a UG
It also looks weird when the font size for the heading is smaller than the font size for the body text. =D Nadine --- On Wed, 7/15/09, syed.hos...@aeris.net syed.hos...@aeris.net wrote: From: syed.hos...@aeris.net syed.hos...@aeris.net Subject: RE: Heading levels in a UG To: Evanth, Henrik henrik.eva...@sonyericsson.com, framers@lists.frameusers.com Received: Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 11:03 AM I use a maximum of 4 ... anything more, and the heading numbering scheme gets quite clumsy and distracts from the content. Z -Original Message- From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Evanth, Henrik Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 12:25 AM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: OT: Heading levels in a UG Hi All I have an off-topic question that may or may not interest you. We are having a discussion at the office regarding the maximum levels of heading that a User guide/User manual can/should contain. Do you know of any best practice rules that define how deep a publication should/could be. Personally I think that 6 levels is too deep for a user, but that is just a personal preference that I cannot back up with evidence. Heading 1 Heading 2 Heading 3 Heading 4 Heading 5 Heading 6 Insights, comments or instructions are highly appreciated. Best Regards /Henrik ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as generic...@yahoo.ca. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/generic668%40yahoo.ca Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Re: Heading levels in a UG
You can avoid that by starting your chapter titles at 72pt and slowly decrease from there. ;) On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 11:10 AM, Writergeneric...@yahoo.ca wrote: It also looks weird when the font size for the heading is smaller than the font size for the body text. =D -- Bill Swallow Twitter: @techcommdood Blog: http://techcommdood.com LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/techcommdood Available for contract and full time opportunities. STC Ideas: http://stcideas.ning.com Join: http://stcideas.ning.com/?xgi=6X1vNGI ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Heading levels in a UG
Hi Framers, In general if your heading levels descend below three or four in user documentation, you need to take a step back, analyze, and rebalance. Nothing new here, just the old axiom be nice to your user... You can apply the same principle to the navigation over enterprise websites. If you find yourself descending past three or four, redefine your level 1 heads (perhaps a level 1 head gets removed and two level 2s beneath it promoted). Do what makes sense. Rebalance it. If you find yourself descending past four, five, or six you might have a guide hiding within a guide. Break it out. An outline or book structure is like a decision tree or even a binary tree. The more levels you force me to descend, the higher my cost in 'look-up' latency, the harder it is for me to recall the context or navigate back to the heading, and the more painfully disoriented I become. If disorientation is a feature or adding levels is a requirement for your particular documentation (legal writing, city electrical codes, cell phone billing statements, philisophical treatise), then you are okay in descending as many levels as needed, just remember to index or enumerate 'said' headings adequately so folks can cite them at a later time from equally disorienting prose. Another version of be nice to your user is don't Hegel your audience (although even Hegel had a tendency to articulate or 'piece' general concepts into threes). Cheers, Reid From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com on behalf of syed.hos...@aeris.net Sent: Wed 7/15/2009 11:03 AM To: Evanth, Henrik; framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: RE: Heading levels in a UG I use a maximum of 4 ... anything more, and the heading numbering scheme gets quite clumsy and distracts from the content. Z -Original Message- From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Evanth, Henrik Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 12:25 AM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: OT: Heading levels in a UG Hi All I have an off-topic question that may or may not interest you. We are having a discussion at the office regarding the maximum levels of heading that a User guide/User manual can/should contain. Do you know of any best practice rules that define how deep a publication should/could be. Personally I think that 6 levels is too deep for a user, but that is just a personal preference that I cannot back up with evidence. Heading 1 Heading 2 Heading 3 Heading 4 Heading 5 Heading 6 Insights, comments or instructions are highly appreciated. Best Regards /Henrik ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as rg...@interactivesupercomputing.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/rgray%40interactivesupercomputing.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Re: Heading levels in a UG
You can avoid that by starting your chapter titles at 72pt and slowly decrease from there. ;) Heading1 72 pt. Heading 2 71 pt. Heading 370 pt. etc. : ) Mike Wickham ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Heading levels in a UG
Ah! 72 levels of headings are quite possible then. . . . I kid, I kid! :) Z -Original Message- From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Mike Wickham Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 2:24 PM To: Frame Users Subject: Re: Heading levels in a UG You can avoid that by starting your chapter titles at 72pt and slowly decrease from there. ;) Heading1 72 pt. Heading 2 71 pt. Heading 370 pt. etc. : ) Mike Wickham ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Heading levels in a UG
Henrik: I think you only get stuck counting levels if you fail to write in topics. If you create a topic (think of a magazine article) then you'll probably only ever need to divide that material into one or two levels. I think of H1 as being a topic title wherever it goes. It never gets adjusted. It's always H1. An H1 can be divided into H2s and, if necessary, the H2s into H3s. A single topic can be made into a small document -- like an installation sheet. In that case, HT (document title) and H1 (topic title) are the same. Several topics (but too few to require grouping into chapters) can be assembled into a medium-sized document, like a user guide or a quick start guide. So you'd have HT and a series of H1s, with the H1s still divided at most into H2s and H3s. When there are so many topics they must be grouped, I group them into chapters. So a chaptered document might have four levels: HC, H1, H2, and H3. Beyond that, I flatten the material into the desired number of levels. I only get trapped by my own levels when I'm stuck thinking about an outline or about the logical nature of the content, which is not what my end reader needs. Bear ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
