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Geoff, I'm an editor (I do both general interest and technical documents). I
think numbered headers are ugly, and the company I edit for doesn't use them
often, but they certainly are a more succinct method for accurately
referring a reader to another location. The reader immediately knows whether
to page forward or backward ... and having numbered headers eliminate the
need to add little helping comments like "later in this chapter," "in
Chapter 4, 'Installing Options,'" "in the 'Choosing Your Environment'
section earlier in this chapter..."
Formatting numbered headers is also a problem, since the text of the header
may end up right of the center of the page! My preference is to run the
number to the left of the left-handed text margin, in a negative
relationship to the margin setting. But then you need large margins and a
large gutter.
Even though I hate the way they look, I have often found myself wishing for
them when a document referred the reader hither and thither more often than
not!
Fran Freiman
ffreiman -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com
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Fran Freiman Email: ffreiman -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com
Joe Freiman
Matt Freiman
