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Subject:Max. TOC length From:"Geoff Hart (by way of \"Eric J. Ray\" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>)" <ght -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> Date:Fri, 14 Aug 1998 09:12:23 -0600
Gillian Campbell wondered if there were any studies that defined a
maximum length for a table of contents (TOC). I can't think of any
such study offhand, and I'd distrust any such study that I did find.
A TOC lists the contents of a book, and thus its length depends
solely on those contents. I strongly suspect that the actual maximum
length is determined more by the physical restrictions on the length
of a book than on any other factor. However, the number of headings
and heading levels is a factor, so...
The more interesting questions are what level of detail you can or
should include in a TOC and now to format the TOC to make these
levels of heading distinct. I tend to stop at the third-level heads
and use a combination of indenting and boldfacing to make everything
distinct and easy to scan. Others will likely have other suggestions.
--Geoff Hart @8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it."--Author unknown
