atw: Re: Web Text Line Length and Par Length

Optimal is when:
- I can choose to make the text bigger or smaller
- I can resize the window and have the text reflow to fit the new width
How will this text be displayed? What control will readers have over the display?
I'm in favour of guidelines as long as they're not too prescriptive. A good writer can write a clear 40-word sentence. A bad writer can manage to be confusing in 10 words.
"Is 17 to 24 words the best number per sentence?" No. Do you feel that you have to rewrite that sentence to make it contain 17 to 24 words?
"Do you think (as I do) that more than four lines in a paragraph are too much?" No. If a paragraph logically needs five or more lines, the last thing I want you to do is to arbitrarily split it into two paragraphs. 

Stuart

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