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Jonathan West noted another important advantage of numbered headings:
<<I would suggest that looking up a cross-reference based on the
number is far more efficient than the name, especially in a longer
document, because the numbering is sequential.>>
Good point. I was thinking primarily of shorter documents, and I
suspect you're correct that as document length and complexity grows,
the use of numbered headings adds increasing value. However, that
being said:
<<If you don't already know where "Methods, Applying for a court
date, in Montreal" is, you have to look it up in the Table of
Contents (which is not ordered alphabetically) or the index (if the
document happens to have one, and if this item happens to have been
indexed in the way you have described), and then you look up the page
number. The process of getting to the right page based on the page
number is pretty much the same as getting to the right page based on
the section number, but you have had to make an additional lookup to
get to the point where you have a page number to find.>>
I should have noted (rather than leaving implicit) that references to
the heading alone are not sufficient. In a longer document, adding an
"on page 123" type of cross-reference is a great kindness to the
reader--indeed, I'd go so far as to say that it's essential. The page
number then accomplishes one of the same goals as the numbered
headings: directing the reader to the correct page without requiring
a trip to the TOC or index.
The word-based cross-reference then offers the advantage of greater
"friendliness" to a general audience that may be intimidated by
numbers. By no means am I stating that we should assume our audience
is less intelligent than we are. But we should consider whether
numbering creates yet another disincentive to read our docs for an
audience that already has plenty of excuses. I can report several
personal examples of people (family and friends) who find numbering
somewhat intimidating--and although I do not offer this observation
as an indictment of numbering schemes, I do offer it as one data
point: we need to know whether this may be a problem for a given
audience and if it is, to adopt alternative solutions that are less
intimidating.
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