Re: Colons versus periods in procedures containing illustrations

[Thorsten Konersmann <tk -at- documentation -dot- engineering>]

>From a functional point of view, I understand your plain text example in
such a way that the colon is supposed to clarify the reference from the
step to the illustration (namely, to the illustration following the colon,
below the step).

Principally, the layout of step-by-step instructions should always be
unambiguous about which step refers to which illustration (e.g., the
illustration placed above or below the step or which of the illustrations
placed in the marginal column).

If the reference from the step to the illustration is unambiguous in the
layout, the colon does not serve a functional purpose, or does it?

Apart from this functional argument, is there another argument to be made
purely regarding punctuation and style?

On Mon 26. Nov 2018 at 22:34 Lin Sims <ljsims -dot- ml -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

> It's a niggly thing, but I cannot find a style guide that addresses the
> topic.
>
> Say you have a step in a procedure, and the step contains a graphic
> illustration after the text.
>
> Do you end the text part of the step with a period or a colon, and why?
>
> Should it be:
>
> 1. Click Configure:
>     [graphic here]
>
> OR
>
> 1. Click Configure.
>     [graphic here]
>
> --
> Lin Sims
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