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Subject:Re: Bulleted lists... Is there a limit? From:Barb Philbrick <caslonsvcs -at- IBM -dot- NET> Date:Mon, 28 Jul 1997 14:37:12 GMT
Except . . .
A lot of times I use bulleted lists for information that's sort of a
check list.
For example:
To run this software, you must have PC that:
. runs Windows 95
. has a xxx hard drive
. CD-ROM
. and so on
No one's got to chunk anything, because they don't need to remember
the information. I think a list like this can be as long as it needs
to be. Breaking it into logical groupings is helpful to alleviate the
tedium of reading a long list, but even a long obnoxious list is
better than trying to present this type of information in paragraphs.
Thanks for the book recommendations!
Barb
On Fri, 25 Jul 1997 20:57:27 -0500, you wrote:
>At 12:36 PM 7/25/97 EST, DWeber wrote:
>> What is the maximum amount of items acceptable in a bulleted list? Is
>> there a definite answer? My interviewer thought so.
>>
>The rule of thumb is seven, plus or minus two items in a list. This number
>is based upon the ability of readers to store items in short-term memory.
Barbara Philbrick, Caslon Services Inc.
Technical Writing
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