Fwd: Binding methods

["T.W. Smith" <techwordsmith -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Well, I never said perfect binding was my preferred method. But, it's
better than three-ring bound IMHO for what I do, and it looks much
better.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: tgregner -at- comcast -dot- net <tgregner -at- comcast -dot- net>
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 16:52:24 +0000
Subject: Re: Binding methods
To: "T.W. Smith" <techwordsmith -at- gmail -dot- com>

Hi T.W.  I'm new to the forum and would respond to the entire group,
but I get the mail by way of my personal webmail client and cannot
turn off the HTML option, which is rejected by the forum's server. But
I would like to comment on your note.

In my experience (nearly 26 years now in technical publications),
perfect binding is one of the absolute worst ways to disseminate
information to users. The advantages are having a nice spine that
looks good on a bookshelf, but that same advantage limits the book's
usefulness. You cannot lay it open on a desk and work at the same
time, unless of course you have a brick to put on top of it to hold it
open. Binders are better (I've always preferred seven-ring over
three-ring), but spiral, for all its lack of information on the spine,
is the most user-friendly for the reasons you name. Not only will they
stay open, but they can be folded back to take up less than half the
space of a binder.

Online (including CD-ROM) information has its place, too, but it is
hopelessly inadequate for large diagrams when flow must be followed
across a densely packed 17" page. For these, I've always used the
"apron" approach -- especially for tutorial and theories of operation
-- so that the related text can be read with the diagram folded out
and fully visible even if it is several pages away (the apron portion
is blank and the diagram Z-folded). There is no One True Way when it
comes to presentation, and in some cases, perfect binding is okay,
such as in books about something that contain no process or exercises
to be followed.

Anyway, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. I guess I'm truly one
of those "Old Fashioned" tech writers who also have all the new
skills. (I went to work for Xerox in 1981 and got to use large
workstations with a GUI and a mouse, three years before the first
Macintosh hit the streets. Prior to that, I was using either
green-screen PCs running DOS or CPM, or legal pads with pencils... )

======
T.

Remember, this is online. Take everything with a mine of salt and a grin.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ROBOHELP X5: Featuring Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author
support, PDF and XML support and much more!
TRY IT TODAY at http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrl

WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT: New! Document review system for Word and FrameMaker
authors. Automatic browser-based drafts with unlimited reviewers. Full
online discussions -- no Web server needed! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l 

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.