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Subject:marginal :-) definitions (was Re: "dummy" books to...) From:Kelly Hoffman <kelly -at- NASHUA -dot- HP -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 28 Mar 1994 17:27:09 EST
Bonni Graham <bonnig -at- AOL -dot- COM> writes:
> I love the idea of margin definitions. [...]
> I thnks having the definitions in the margin,
> indicated with bold text in the index, and no glossary would be more
> intuitive than the current system. Anyone want to poke holes in this?
It would work for text that you expect will be read serially -- say, for
an introductory chapter or a tutorial book.
However, for a book that's more likely to be flipped through (random
access, rather than sequential ;-), how would you deal with multiple
references to the same term?
With a glossary (and with hypertext), you can have the definition in a
single location, which the reader can reference as needed. With marginal
notations only, are you going to put the definitions in the margin at
each occurrence? As a reader, I think I'd find this scheme distracting.
kkh
Kelly K. Hoffman kelly -at- nashua -dot- hp -dot- com
Learning Products Engineer
Hewlett-Packard, Network Test Division "Reading the manual is
One Tara Blvd., Nashua, NH 03062 admitting defeat."
