atw: Re: page numbering - which style to use
- From: Irene Wong <irene.wong@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2006 10:47:43 +1100
There are lots of things people don't do that were once standard.
Most people do not even know what was once considered "quality". They wont
criticise you. They don't even know.
I always understood that the header on the left page was the name of the
book and the header on the right page bore the name of the chapter. But
everyone knows the name of the book, so why put it in the left page
header? Then again if you photocopy a page the name of the book title is
handy on the even pages.
This dual header set up is still done in some books but we can make much
better use of the headers on pages as findability aids so why stick with
tradition?
I HATE pdfs with roman numeral intro pages. But then again I hate free
pdfs as extracts of books but the pdf I print out doesn't give me the
name and author of the source of the pages. What a stupid way of promoting
your book that is.
We need to rethink lots of things based on (surprise surprise) how our
users use our products.
Irene Wong
Publishing Manager
Office of Corporate Affairs, Sydney
Australian Securities & Investments Commission
02 9911 2601 (internally dial 22601)
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This may not help your argument and you're probably already aware of it,
but the AGPS Style manual opts for A:
"It is conventional to number the preliminary pages of a book with
lower-case roman numerals. This practice allows extra material to be
added before printing without having to change the page numbering of the
main text. For aesthetic reasons, the roman page numbers are not printed
on some of the preliminary pages."
My gut reaction is to be scared of moving away from convention, but now
that you've made me question it I can't see why we shouldn't do B instead.
Especially if you have control over what you are printing and are
unlikely to insert extra front matter.
It could be a bold new move in publishing Bob - go where no man has gone
before!
The only argument I could think of for A was that people expect to see it
and your materials might be seen as less professional if they don't
conform to convention? As always, it depends on your audience. If they
don't read a lot of books they may not care one way or another.
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Trussler
Sent: Thursday, 23 November 2006 9:48 AM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: page numbering - which style to use
There is a debate raging in my tech writer team about what numbering style
we should use in our documents. We are developing new standards.
We currently have two choices, shown below. Does anyone have support for
the modern way of using Arabic numbering throughout? I reckon that Roman
for front matter followed by Arabic for the content comes from the olden
days of hand publishing when the content was assembled THEN the Table of
Contents was assembled later, so why do we need to maintain this style?
(A) Keep the front matter separate from main content:
- Front matter uses lower-case Roman with the Title page and Copyright
unnumbered
- Rest of the doc in sequential Arabic, starting at 1.
(B) Number the whole doc in sequential Arabic:
- Whole doc including the front matter in sequential Arabic. Numbering
begins at 1 on the title page
- Title page and Copyright with no number displayed.
Thanks in advance.
Bob Trussler
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