Rules in tables

[geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA]

 Christopher Knight wrote <<Recently I got a review back
 from my boss (who is not a TC professional) and he asked me
 to put horizontal & vertical rules in all my tables.
 I operate on the "minimum ink" principle...>>

 And so you should. I regularly have to put up with tables
 that look like someone's idea of graph paper, and hate
 them... I find it harder to locate information and read
 across lines than when the rules are omitted. However...

 <<The document is a software Users' Guide for telecom
 operations center personnel, with a fair amount of
 tabular material, but little of it meets my criteria for
 using rules.>>

 In a case like that, rules would probably be more valuable
 for _grouping_ consecutive lines the contain related
 information than for helping people read across individual
 lines... but without seeing the actual application, it's
 hard to comment knowledgably. One thought: can you examine
 standard industry references for these types of users to
 see what they're familiar with? Send two alternative
 designs to some users to see which they prefer?

 --Geoff Hart     @8^{)}     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
 Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.

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