Re: Gerunds in titles and headings

["Amy G. Peacock" <apeacock -at- WOLFENET -dot- COM>]

On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, Porrello, Leonard wrote:

> If you go with the "How to. . ." construction, however, your automatically =
> generated table of contents might a little less than absolutely user friend=
> ly, with several chapter or sub-heading beginning with "How to . . . ."

Hmmm...that's true. I set my headings up using a first or second level
heading for the stuff like "Editing your document" and then I have
another heading (a level below the heading) that says "How To..." This
way I get a ToC with helpful headings as well as the How To... part.
So, a section might look something like this:

Editing you Document
   Introduction
     (introductory/basic text about the topic
   How To...
     (the actual steps to doing the task)
   More About...
     (tips, tricks, stuff to watch for and details about the task -
     each of which might have a sub-heading of its own under the
     heading)

Of course, it get more complex once you start working on a complex
project. :) But this way the user can look in the ToC and find the
basic section itself, the How To... section so they can finish their
task, or the More About... section if they are trying to troubleshoot
something or want to know some shortcuts.

So far so good - although getting feedback from my users is like
pulling teeth...

Amy Peacock
techwriter & jewelrymaker
Snohomish, Washington
apeacock -at- wolfenet -dot- com

"How do I set my laser printer to stun?"
-----------------------------------------
   21 days until Imbolc


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