Re: (Was Glossaries etc.)

[Len Olszewski <saslpo -at- UNX -dot- SAS -dot- COM>]

Chad Hill asks:

> What I'm wondering is this:  Would my audience (typically uninitiated
> technologically) benefit from BOTH an index AND a glossary, or margin
> definitions AND a glossary.  I seem to think that the later of the two would
> be most helpful to my particular audience (but I'm quite interested in your
> responses).

You need an index no matter what. Always.

Nothing stops you from providing margin definitions and a formal
glossary. However, you may want to just *emphasize* a text definition
(like Mike Pope and I do in our books, evidently) rather than
marginalize it, based on how many you have. Your call.

So they want you to make your book *shorter*, do they? That argues
against margin-anything. Consider multiple columns and more tables and
figures.

> I'm the pup around here (literally) so I'm rather interested in my elders'
> responses.  You folks have had much more experience with this sort of thing.

Now *that's* encouraging. Well, young feller, back when I first started
out, why, we didn't even have *ink pens*, nossir. We used charcoal and
the backs of shovels - *wooden* shovels. No durn glossaries; our readers
had to *guess* what we meant. And they *liked* it! Heh.

8^)

|Len Olszewski, Technical Writer |"Thou gettest no bread with one     |
|saslpo -at- unx -dot- sas -dot- com|Cary, NC, USA| meatball." - Robert Sheckley       |
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| Opinions this ludicrous are mine. Reasonable opinions will cost you.|