Re: Request for help re: Margin size and bindings? 2) " Anyone can do it"

Subject: Re: Request for help re: Margin size and bindings? 2) " Anyone can do it"
From: "etymes -at- lts -dot- com" <etymes -at- lts -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 18 May 2002 15:38:15 -0700


sclarke -at- nucleus -dot- com wrote:

Am working on a contract producing standard operating procedures which will ultimately be stored online and in 3 ring binders. Can anyone tell me what the minimum left margin size/setting would be to accommodate the binder?

<p> You can buy reams of pre-drilled paper for 3-ring binders, at prices just a shade more expensive than unpunched paper. That's one kind of 'standard' if you want to use it. Most paper for 3-ring binders have punches that reside in the left-most 1/2" of the page, so if you wanted to go right to the hole on the left side of the page, you could set the left margin to 1/2". You could also set the right margin to 1/2", which would allow for printing with the widest possible line.
<p>Those, however, are margins that aren't used very often. Word's default page layout uses left and right margins of 1.25". Framemaker's default page layout for a chapter page is 1.25" left margin and 1" right margin.

I nearly hit the roof and had a coronary when my immediate supervisor contacted me by telephone to tell me he & another wannabe tech writer had just finished 'tweaking' my style guide. They had decided, without consulting me or even asking for my input, that the page margins for the policies and procedures should now be: Top 1.75", Bottom: 1.75", Left: 3.0", Right: 2.75" on an 8 1/2 by 11 inch page!

Correct me if I wrong (math isn't my strong suit) but doesn't that leave a single (approximately) 2" inch column in the middle? They did this "to accommodate the binder and so it would be nicely centered on the page"

<p> Just do the math. If a page is 8.5" wide, and you're subtracting 3" on the left and 2.75" on the right, you're left with 2.75" in the middle. That's pretty slim by anybody's standards. (Btw, default top and bottom margins are usually about 1" each.) You might take any standard text that already exists at your company and load it into such a page, being sure to use the same text font and size that your company uses, and show the so-called experts what their pages will look like. However, when I've encountered naive clients who thought they could design pages, what worked best was to bring samples from other companies' manuals so that the clients could see what was being done elsewhere. If you visit some of the engineers in your company, you'll probably be able to see some books in 3-ring binders and photocopy a couple of sample pages.
<p> Regardless of the indignation you feel over what seems like trampling on your turf, remember that the best way to gain respect for your talents is to demonstrate why certain things work and why others don't. Getting upset over someone else's tweaking with your style guide only marks you as prickly, not necessarily better. One of the easiest ways to handle naive 'corrections' is to show them examples of how well-known companies have handled similar problems -- nothing succeeds like pulling out a Microsoft or Sun or HP manual as an example of styles that are the result of lots of research, research (and money) that the new company doesn't really have to spend.

<p> Btw, has anyone in your company done the numbers on the relative costs of producing manuals in 3-ring binders vs. perfect bound paperbacks? There's a good discussion in the Techwr-l archives about this that touches on usability, cover costs, updating, etc. You'd probably be surprised at where the costs are.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems




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