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> > Changing our numbering style might confuse customers (albeit briefly),
> > and the possible usability payoff of sequential numbering is not worth
> >the confusion.
> Do you really think your users are that stupid? Sequential page numbering
> is something they have been familiar with since early childhood. They
> ought to be able to master the shock of seeing normally numbered pages
> by now.
One company I worked for decided to change its page numbering format
from sequential page numbering to folio page numbering. In one
magazine review of the software, the reviewer complained that the new
manuals only had section numbers, not page numbers, which made the
manuals extremely difficult to use. One of the marketing people
contacted that reviewer and the marketing person confirmed to Tech Pubs
that the reviewer had indeed mistaken page numbers in the format 1-3, 4-7,
10-34 in the footers for section numbers.