"the following" or nothing -- what is IM's preference? (was:"Next" or "the following"... )

[Pro TechWriter]

Quote:
"It's difficult enought to have
reasonable page endings with IM without having to anchor something to
something else in Word. Ack."

If the procedure (or whatever) rolls to the next page when I am doing the
final copyfitting, and it's marked as "below" when it is not, then that's a
problem. (Same with "above. " Do I break a page based on that statement?
No.)

I have to use Word with Information Mapping which makes weird page endings
anyway. Some pages can be one-quarter of a page, with the next one
completely filling the margins from top to bottom. Add "aboves" and "belows"
to that and you have a nightmare.

And, frankly, most workplaces don't allow the kind of time needed for any
more than generic statements that don't require excessive maintenance (for
aboves and belows). It has been at least 15 years since I have worked
anywhere that did it that way.

In online documentation, I chunk text more than I would for hard copy, so
there *is* no below. I prefer Gene's method anyway, which says:

Format the drive
1. Do this
2. Do this
3. Do this

:-)


On 12/11/06, Chinell, David F (GE Indust, Security) <David.Chinell at ge.com>
wrote:
>
>
> What exactly is your objection to "below?"
>
> Bear
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+david.chinell=ge.com at lists.techwr-l.com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+david.chinell=ge.com at lists.techwr-l.com]On
> Behalf Of Pro TechWriter
> Sent: Monday, December 11, 2006 1:57 PM
> To: Milan Davidovic
> Cc: TECHWR-L
> Subject: Re: "the following" or nothing -- what is IM's preference?
> (was:"Next" or "the following"... )
>
>
> I looked it up. InfoMapping uses "in the following" (list, approach,
> procedure, etc.) almost exclusively. They also use "below" a lot, which I
> will not do in hard copy documentation. It's difficult enought to have
> reasonable page endings with IM without having to anchor something to
> something else in Word. Ack.
>
> As far as the other comments, IM was used to train non-writers to do their
> own documentation because they didn't have a technical writer at all. They
> still prefer using the methodology for their documentation, so that means
> I
> use it too. :-)
>
> PT
>
> On 12/11/06, Milan Davidovic <shl_ctf at yahoo.ca> wrote:
> >
> > --- Pro TechWriter <pro.techwriter at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Everyone is trained in Information Mapping here, so
> > > they seem to want more
> > > at the end of the introductory sentence.
> >
> > Is this an interpretation of the IM approach, or an
> > actual rule?
> >
> > Milan
> > http://altmilan.blogspot.com
> > http://www.terminus1525.ca/studio/view/2758
> >
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> PT
> pro.techwriter at gmail.com
> I'm a Technical Technical Writer!
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-- 
PT
pro.techwriter at gmail.com
I'm a Technical Technical Writer!